Posts
Maybe I'm just turning into a wimp, but I was starting to get that hot feeling just trying to explain how commas go before beginning a quote, and at the end of the quote all punctuation is supposed to go on the inside. Then of course, I had a to use a sample sentence that required the class to capitalize and punctuate "mr" as in the abbreviation for "mister." In one class, I couldn't find anyone who could identify a problem with the sentence:
“I think your spelling has improved,” mr Trudgeon said.
I don't understand how teachers are able to maintain and consistently update a blog during the school year. Especially during the beginning. Three weeks, and I've already exhausted myself trying to teach things that technically aren't even on this year's standards, but need to be taught so that we can move forward with some sort of common ground. Even if I feel like writing, I don't have the time to pause and arrange my thoughts coherently. Not a good sign, especially since I start grad school in two weeks. I think I forgot how to write a research paper. If they accept five paragraph essays and Jane Schaffer paragraphs I'll be good to go.
I've heard it's good for kids to see their parents being affectionate. Nevertheless, I was somewhat taken aback as I observed my soon to be two year old creep up behind his unsuspecting mother, give her thigh and bottom a little squeeze, and punctuate it with: "Niiiiiice!"
I'd like to thank my neighbor across the hall for reporting another glorious exchange between teacher and student:
Student: That's pretty messed up how the school steals the Internet.
Teacher (and a few students): What are you talking about?
Student: This school steals the internet.
Teacher: No we don't. Where'd you get that idea?
Student: Yes, we do. I heard a couple of teachers say they get the Internet from the airport.
Two days down, and no major mishaps. One girl knocked over my coffee cup, but that's my fault for leaving it on the barstool in the middle of the room.
"Your room smells like ramen noodles."
"I'm a BAMF. Think about it."
According to the head of my district union, there are two presidential candidates out there: one who wants to fix the problems of the educational system, and one who "wants to blame it all on the teachers."
Some families are suing the CATHOLIC Diocese for an English-only policy at a Wichita CATHOLIC school. Their lawsuit "calls for an end to the policy and asks for an order barring similar policies at other Catholic schools in the Wichita diocese."
Just when I had all my wonderful "critical thinking" lessons planned out for the year, it turns out kids actually need to have some factual knowledge about which to think critically.
"As your most-hated high school teacher often told you (will I be exempt since I teach 8th grade?), you have to buckle down and learn the content of a subject--facts, concepts and trends--before the maxims of critical thinking taught in these feverishly-marketed courses will do you much good.
'The processes of thinking are intertwined with the content of thought (that is, domain knowledge),' Willingham says. 'Thus, if you remind a student to "look at an issue from multiple perspectives" often enough, he will learn that he ought to do so, but if he doesn't know much about an issue, he can't think about it from multiple perspectives.'"
A recent opinion poll indicates that the public's approval of public school performance, and the No Child Left Behind Act, have dwindled over the past year. This nugget (quoted in an Education Week article about the poll) caught my eye:
"(The) results should be heeded by the presumptive Democratic and Republican nominees for president, argue the authors of an article analyizing the findings that is slated to run in the fall issue of Education Next, a journal of research and opinion published by the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.
'f Barack Obama and John McCain want to walk in step with the American public, they should acknowledge the flagging performance of schools, for while Americans retain an abiding commitment to public education, the grades that they assign the nation’s schools are increasingly mediocre,' says the article, written by William G. Howell, an associate professor of public policy at the University of Chicago; Martin West, an assistant professor of education at Brown University, in Providence, R.I.; and Paul E. Peterson, a professor of government at Harvard. Mr. West is an executive editor of Education Next, and Mr. Peterson is the editor-in-chief."
First of all, the poll results indicate that 26% of respondents (up from 20% last year) give schools grades of D or F. Yet, 56% of respondents indicate that their local public schools are headed in the right direction. So more people than last year think schools are going down hill, but a majority of folks still believe their local schools are headed in the right direction. Hmmm....So if either candidate wanted to "walk in step with the American public," as Howell says they should, shouldn't McCain or Obama be talking about how we're "headed in the right direction?"
In addition, the commentary from Howell seems to presume that an increase in negative public opinion (put aside, momentarily, that the majority polled still believe their schools to be headed in the right direction) in fact proves the existence of "flagging performance of schools." Thinking something (schools are flagging)is so, is not evidence that something is so. Conspicuously absent from this article as well is any reference to the recent trend of rising test scores under No Child Left Behind. Perhaps the writer hit a word limit.
I would appreciate it if my elected officials based policy decisions on data, facts, evidence, etc. Not public opinion. I don't want to elect the public opinion. I want to elect a leader who will employ the resources available to him to make sound decisions, not decisions based on a fickle public, which may or may not have any idea what they're talking about when it comes to questions of policy.
I like riding my bike. Sometimes I'll take off and ride through a city, just to see what I can see. With only a few free days left before prepping for the upcoming school year, I took a cruise through LA--parked in West Hollywood, took Sunset to the coast, then followed the water down to Santa Monica, through Venice, then back through Santa Monica to Santa Monica Blvd, and Santa Monica Blvd. back to West Hollywood. I was almost back, getting ready to turn left onto Sunset from La Brea. Traffic was thick, and there was no green arrow, so I was feeling pretty nifty for weaving my way up to the front of the left hand turn lane. I planted myself in the middle of the crosswalk so as to leave no doubt of my presence for the guy behind me (in my opinion, Southern CA motorists in general are not very friendly to folks on bikes). Light turns green. I start to ease into the intersection and wait for the onslaught of oncoming traffic to break so I can turn.
