Choose Your Teacher, Not the Class

Unless you are an "insider," you can never be sure of what "really" happens in a bureaucracy. Most jobs have layers of red tape, especially governmental agencies, including the schools. Laws are passed and enacted at differing levels (national, state, and local) to provide for various goals, projects, and needs. It grows with time. With so much history, nuances, past and present ideas and practices, it is clearly a maze (paradox) to the uninitiated. This is especially true to outsiders who interact with it.

Real learning takes place when an individual is interested, motivated, and is challenged. Throw a child into a classroom where they feel unsafe, disinterested, and bored, and you will have little learning. The burden of creating a productive learning environment is mostly in the hands of the classroom teacher.

Create high interest materials and lessons for an exciting topic, and throw in an ill-equipped teacher, and there is no learning.

Now some may say, "Fine. At least my child (student) has the "class" on their report card/transcript and teachers/colleges/employers will.....

Hold on for a second. Have employers looked at your transcript? Do you remember your AP or Honors class?

Probably not. It's just the surface of learning. As a teacher within the maze of education, it's all about learning. It's a waste of my time to debate it. Students who learn are people who grow, change, and become a better person after they leave a lesson, unit, or my classroom. That's all that life's about...changing and growing and becoming better at what we do, say, think, etc.

So while it may look good on a transcript, it was mostly a complete waste of time for the person who went through it if there was a better alternative.

So what's my suggestion? This is insider information. But beware! Authorities will deny everything. I would too if I was one, but that's why I'm not, because "I cannot tell a lie!" Still, it is complex and not 100%, but here are a few ideas.

1. Find out about the new crop of teachers in the grade above. Stop by their room, look at their website, get to know them. And then when it's time to select classes, talk to the guidance counselor/principal and push for that certain team of teachers/teacher that would offer the best learning opportunities for your child. Of course if you have no valid information, just continue letting the bureaucracy pick your child's teachers for you.
   
2. You would truly be interested if you learned that your child is placed with a certain group of fellow students based on abilities, rather than mixed grouping. No one will tell you, but in my limited experience of four schools, it was shockingly clear. Every teacher gets a high, medium, and low class. There are other scenarios but such is scheduling. No one will admit to this, but it's happening.
   
3. Do you want your child with more engaging teachers? Keep the child out of the low classes. How do you do that? By having them play an instrument! Band kids generally have higher IQ's and also have to be grouped for this "special" class. They tend to stick together across different classes. The same occurs for high level math classes. Since this one class is offered at one time, students are forced into a tight schedule for their other core classes and it's usually with the same "high" level students.
4. Many times in middle school, there are a number of "teams." One team has the high level math class(es). Get your child moved to this team and generally the students will be higher level, more motivated, and their teachers will have to keep pace.
5. Take your child out of "high" level classes and get them into the middle ones. The rationale for this is that low classes tend to have students who have serious motivation/organization/academic skills. If they need more help with these areas, they should be there! But, if they are placed in the higher level classes, a number of negative factors may come into play:

• many teachers are not qualified or trained to teach high-level students. The result is a lot of busy work, rather than in-depth work.
  
• many veteran and experienced teachers try to avoid high-level courses because of the parents. Some of the parents are very involved in their child's education but are following the theory that their children are one of the "privileged" and deserve high grades. Worksheets provide high grades, true learning is dangerous, and parents don't always want their child to have low grades; hence, the materials and instruction are not cutting-edge. To sum up, the best teachers move away from cookie-cutter classes like honors and AP, and in Virginia, SOL testing grades like 3,5,8 because their is more freedom for real learning in other grades and classes.
• many students in high-level classes are very busy after school with social/sports events more so than other classes. This realistically reduced the amount of potential and upward mobility of the class throughout the year. Students in the low and mid-level groups will tend to grow more and develop a more positive academic attitude and work ethic. Teachers are aware of this and cannot/or are forced to give less demanding work than they should.
• The classes that most teachers brag about are the ones in the middle: the students ready to learn who work hard. We tend to get frustrated with the low classes that struggle with study skills, memorizing, organization issues, personal problems. We get frustrated with the high-level students who consistently underachieve and are pushed by their parents to unrealistic heights. But we enjoy and work very hard with all of them and appreciate the opportunity to help each one in their academic and personal journey.
  

Of course, it doesn't really matter if you have the right teacher. A true teacher will teach the child, love everyone that comes through their classroom door, help the student learn with the right materials, instructions, lessons, and units, and enjoy every minute of the year without thinking of the "hidden bureaucracy" that they are contributing to by teaching certain classes.

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Teacher Work Days

Even though I have planning each day, it is very hard to do some things since I can't actually work around and in my own room. There are interactive bulletin boards, posters, supplies, cleanups that need to be made constantly. Yes, I could come in earlier, and yes, I could stay after school for hours, but I try to make my own family a priority. A job should not interfere with the richness of your own life, no matter how much you enjoy it or how good you are.

Teacher work days help give us 1-2 days at the end of the marking period to wrap up grades, catch up with teachers, admin, and techies who need updates, info, or who I need to get help from. Paperwork from the entire marking period needs to be organized and filed, and new bulletin boards, copies, and research completed.

It's also a great time to reflect on how the curriculum was applied and followed, and globally, what the next units of instruction should be. Even though there's a lot of thought involved in this process, since last summer and through my career, and though I already know a lot of what we are going to be doing, it's important to fine-tune the instruction and materials for this group of students, this year.

I also need a break from the students. At the beginning of the year everything is so crisp and thought out, but as the weeks pass, edges are blurred and some of my actions and reactions aren't as clear as they should be. This gives me time to eliminate mistakes and set my eyes on the next levels for myself and the children. It also gives me time to catch up on my editing work at editinghelpsite. The website has taken a while to get up and going, but I'm still working at getting freebie articles posted.

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A Headache: H1N1 in our Schools

I see the attendance records of over 1200 students in my school. For the past 3 weeks, between 7-10% of the students have been absent each day. In most cases, students miss at least 3 days of school. Most of the complaints rotate on a headache, a fever, and some vomiting.

Hand washing, wipes, and constant disinfection are our solutions. Hand shaking and sharing objects are a no-no.

In my 13 years of teaching, I've never seen so many students out. It's very, very difficult to maintain a consistent level of scope and sequence (timely instruction) with such high levels of students gone. The students tend to get sick in groups. Many times, groups of students will get sick so a certain class will be hit hard, a team, or grade level in a school.

An encouraging trend is the supportive administration, teachers and parents working hard to help each other, and friendly and hard-working students.

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Sharing Ideas

Life has a lot of give and take. Sometimes it's frustrating because of all the people and government organizations (IRS,Social Security,State) who take, but when you examine your own philosophy of life, and of education, there are some things that hold true.

Like sharing.

I don't expect anything back from sharing other than helping people: parents, teachers, students, kids, and anyone else who could use the information. I want them to get the information that they need, and to be able to use it to make a difference in their life and others around them. Some would say it's good karma, or good works, but I believe that it is essentially who I am.

So what do I share? I give of my time twice a week to practice vocal music (3hrs) so that people can have a positive experience during performances.

I teach children and take care of parents' children every day (at school).

I help my coworkers by providing my expertise with ideas, a listening ear, and time.

I help clean up outside areas of litter.

I take time to listen to my children (even if they're calling me fat right at this moment!) and spend time with them.

I capture stray cats in our neighborhood and take them to the local shelter.

I provide free used objects and animals to my community on a regular basis through our regional Freecycle program.

I also provide free services and information through websites (editinghelpsite for editing, grammar, and writing help, NBCTeacher for teacher and smartboard flipcharts) and blogs (Scrambled Eggs for educators and techies, Sinus Relief for allergy and sinus issues, and Just a Prayer for spiritual needs).

Sharing, helping, and loving others is something we all can do, and do more of! Help someone else today!

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Finally, Caught Up!

I was talking with a colleague on Friday. She made an interesting observation that I concurred with immediately. She said, "Ah, I'm finally caught up."

Exactly.

Even after 13 years of teaching, even after feeling completely "in the zone" this year, and even though I have an extra 45 minutes each day to plan than most teachers at my school (due to scheduling), I finally have caught up.

Why?

I seems that the first 4 weeks of 6th grade involves a lot of extras: 6th grade orientations with the library, guidance, and computer lab/accounts, fundraisers, two team-wide kid meetings, all the paperwork that comes from admin unique to the beginning of the school year (child studies, emergency plans, epi-pen and blood born pathogen trainings, computer troubleshooting and training in the new Word 2007, setting up grade rosters, student concerns, school writing assessment, school pre-algebra assessment, school Stanford reading assessment), setting up parent email lists, textbook contracts, 15 forms to collect for the school, team, and teachers, my class novel sign-outs, setting up two websites to help kids: Editinghelpsite and teachers: NBCTeacher, and trainings for my kids in my class: walking in halls, picking up writing folders, setting up binders, daily procedure for entering the room and starting class, classroom jobs, 3 assessments in fluency, comprehension, and spelling, class expectations and practice, raising hands and getting questions answered the correct way, bathroom-nurse-office pass use, etc. etc. That makes me sick. Wow. That doesn't include the normal teacher stuff like weekly team meetings, weekly content-area meetings, monthly faculty meetings, filling out health, personnel, guidance, and parent forms, filing professional license paperwork and recertification points, managing two book orders for all the kids, discipline training, looking through student folders in the office, calling our homeroom's parents to welcome them to the team, managing Back-to-School Night, all without use of my classroom for planning each day because on one day 7th grade German students have class, and on the next day Resource uses the room.

How do I do it?

And what about correcting papers, running off materials, finding materials, and planning?

Teaching a group of children should be considered an oxymoron. Teaching a child is doable. Teaching a group is verging on impossible.

What did I say at the beginning of this article? I finally felt caught up? Well, I might be. But I'm ready for bed now.

Good night!

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RSS editing problems

So, I thought my RSS feed was up and running from the editing and proofreading site. As it turns out, only two announcements or updates had come through. I knew that I needed to work with it but school became more of an immediate concern. I did spend 1 hour two weeks ago but the main feed43.com site was down except for Platinum members. Today I worked my way through it.

Google changes the way they present their code off and on. KCCloudsolutions provides an easy manual to create an RSS feed from Google sites. The problem is that Google changed it and KCCloud was not exactly the same as what I saw. I had it working properly at one point but I went in again tonight. Most of the code snippets that you pull from the feed should include all the information possible. I reworked it and it's running again...through feedburner.com so I can keep track. I'll work with the NBCTeacher site tomorrow. Editing the technical side of website development takes a lot of patience, troubleshooting, and time.

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Writing Tips

Writing Tips Updated article that helps all of us write better!

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Editing by Pen and Word

Most people are accustomed to editing their documents and text with a pen. But how many of us use Microsoft Word as the editing tool of choice? Using MS Word and a pen provide different opportunities that we should carefully consider before we begin our editing.

The traditional method of using a correcting pen is still as useful and powerful as ever. Different color pens (dark greens, purples, and reds) clearly indicate where changes need to be made. Insertion marks, characters, words, and sentences can be quickly added to multiple parts of any page. If working collaboratively, others can review the document in different pen colors. This makes it easy to see what each person is thinking, as long as you can read their handwriting! Collaborative work is easy as long as the document is physically handed to the next person. But if the document needs to be editing by someone outside the immediate vicinity...

Microsoft Word 2003 and 2007 both provide a relatively easy method to insert revising comments into the document itself. Phrases and sentences can be included and shown within the text itself or as an annotation with a footnote at the bottom. Difficulties arise when individual punctuation or insertions are needed because of the space needed for a comment, or the overwhelming amount of comments that can be added to any line. If the document is needed to show changes, this can be frustrating. If the document needs just a quick edit or revision, this isn't a big problem because changes can be instantly made in the text without the need for adding comments.

So, should you use a pen, or Microsoft Word? It depends. If you are showing changes and think you will have a lot of them, use a pen. If you are just writing comments or need to send the document to people outside of your office, then consider Microsoft Word.

Leyton Roberts
Main website: http://sites.google.com/site/editinghelpsite/
Main blog: http://editinghelpsite.blogspot.com/

I am a Professional Educator and English teacher in Northern Virginia. I offer editing and proofreading services at below market rates, specifically to students and small businesses. There are a number of Freebies on the site including gadgets, useful links, and articles.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Leyton_Roberts

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H1N1 and teaching

Wow. What a rush. School starts anew, kids are excited, I'm running around finishing all of the assessment analysis, basic skills in the classroom (review and overview) and am setting up the two new units for my classes.

And then the flu hits. Coughing from deep in the chest, sniffles, fever, aches....

Not me, but the kids. Usually 6-8 each day which is 12-15% of my kids. They are gone for 3-5 school days. It's so hard to catch them up! It's not like one day where you can work around what they miss, we're talking major instructional time that has to be retaught individually to some extent. Quizzes and tests then have to be given.

Add to this the fact that the kids are just 6th graders, new to the "big" school, and aren't used to the homework load, school, teachers, or routines; and you get one big mess.

The children come back and sound horrible, look horrible, and shouldn't be at school.

And then when they finally are getting back on track at school, others take their place.

And like most years, it's the lower academic students who tend to stay home more and longer.

Double yikes.

But wait, there's one final additive to this melting pot of influenza: I have this scratchiness in my throat. It feels like it's getting tight. I also had a small cough that burns a little, from deep down in my chest....

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NBCTeacher site update

I've begun a new section on the NBCTeacher website that focuses on time management. The first concept is the central one: keeping kids on task. The main method is to create meaningful relationships between you and the student(s), and the students and the materials. Distractions are also a problem and can be a constant nuisance as it takes away form learning time, commonly called time-on-task. There are other areas of time management that I am going to work on this week, but the ideas are there to encourage students and teachers alike. For all your editing and proofreading needs, see the editinghelpsite!

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Finally, I've Caught Up

It took exactly 4 weeks. Wow.

Assessments, classroom initial training of materials, procedures, expectations, routines for everything, orientations, and the basics for writing and reading in my classes is over! I've enjoyed getting information and learning what I need to do in future units. I've really enjoyed getting to know the kids more personally and individually. I've taken the kids outside to read and write 2 times so far. Back to School Night is over, admin early paperwork is finished, the first book order is ready to be passed out, and the first parent email has been sent out. The first units are ready and I have finally found my "groove!"

I could have found my "groove" earlier if I hadn't focused on: assessments, classroom initial training of materials, procedures, expectations, routines for everything, orientations, and the basics for writing and reading in my classes is over! enjoyed getting information and learning what I need to do in future units, enjoyed getting to know the kids more personally and individually, taken the kids outside to read and write 2 times so far, Back to School Night, admin early paperwork, the first book order to be passed out, and the first parent email.

Interesting.

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Professional Integrity

Professional integrity is the substance, thoughts and actions whereby a certain line of work is maintained and supported by its members of their own volition. Specific measures can be taken to support the foundations and continual development of the profession.

In layman’s terms, this means doing what you should do when nobody is watching. Read more at NBCTeacher.

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Sharing a Room

It can be really hard to share a room. There is a whole sense of ownership and control that has to be given away, and then returned.

I used to get annoyed when I would come into my classroom in the morning and see a bunch of desks together with a soda in the trashcan. But I had to realize that custodians work too! This is "their" school and my classroom is just one of many.

I remember when my room was used by a parent group for meetings because it was convenient to the main hallway. They would leave text up on the blackboard and I would have to erase it and clean it. Then I realized that my classroom was needed because it was easy to find.

Once a church met at our schools on Sundays. I would find preschool playthings, ribbons, and stickers on the floor.

When the community uses what they paid for, everyone wins. They usually remember. Maybe it's my classroom, maybe not. Regardless, they bought it with their tax dollars. Without exception, they don't intend to cause problems and they are very good at cleaning up.

5, 10, 15 years from now (maybe next year), I won't be in that room. I may be down the next hall, or in a different school! The room will be filled with students and a teacher will be there sitting at the desk. I'm thankful for the opportunity to do what I love: teach and work with kids. But I know that nothing is permanent.

It's hard. There are certain posters that I always hang up in certain places. When I return in the fall, everything is ready to be pulled out and put up. Routines help us until we have to break them.

I have two planning times, each at a different time depending if it's an A or B day. For one, a German teacher comes in for the whole block. Big 7th graders come into my room and squirm under the tight desks. They stick gum in them and leave papers and lunchbags around the room. On the other day, the room is used by a study hall teacher. Kids come in and out and things are taken off shelves.

But the students need German and a study hall. There is no room anywhere else because of the overcrowding at my school.

The hardest part for me is the transition between leaving the room, and returning to the room.

When I leave the room, all of my supplies and papers are organized (to a certain degree) and in the right places. I quickly stuff things in my bag but there are so many things to do and it's so messy and disorganized! Sitting in the library, or another room, I have to pull out everything, keep up with students, hold onto paperwork, and prepare to run back to the room.

When I enter the room, I have to quickly empty my bag of the clump of papers and try to makes sense of them. I need to set up the room before the students enter: set up computer promethean flipchart agenda, get attendance and gradebook and seating chart and behavioral program on the front podium, monitor students coming into the room for materials and beginning procedures, and be outside the room for hall duty: all within 60 seconds.

But, it's needed and worth it.

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Back to School Night

I enjoy this night a lot. When you meet a parent, you gain so much! They understand your personality a little bit; they know that their kids are safe and working hard and having fun (in my classroom), both of us gain a little bit of mystical "power" over their children, I get their email address so that I can send them updates throughout the year, I get to eat out on my own for the night, I get to catch up on some of those piles of paper that are calling out my name, I get to come in later the next day and wear casual clothes instead of a tie, I plan the week around the next day so that I have little to do and can relax, and I get to answer some of those burning questions that individual parents have.

I felt very comfortable this year because I was ready!

1. I updated my powerpoint/flipchart so that we had something to talk about when they came into the room

2. I printed off an email signup sheet and attached it to a clipboard for parents who came in.

3. I printed off a cheat sheet of topics that parents would be interested in hearing about.

4. I emphasized two things for all classes: homework is usually just reading 20+ minutes each night with a reading log to fill out, and secondly, I showed them examples that were on the blackboard. Those two things for me, were the most important elements of my class that they needed to know for the year. Everything else comes through the email they gave me: every week or so an update with files attached.

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