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Microphones in the Classroom

Posted by Waski_the_Squirrel on Tuesday, September 25, 2007 10:59:40 PM
I can see why some classrooms may contain microphones. Perhaps the teacher records his lessons as podcasts. Perhaps there is a deaf student who wears a headset. Maybe the teacher broadcasts to several schools simultaneously.

Why I don't understand is why some schools would use microphones to compete with student noise.

When I was a new teacher, I used to make the mistake of trying to drown out the talking students. I've learned better since then. Now I don't talk over them. I'm the adult in the room. If I allow a bunch of students to walk all over me, I'm probably not doing my job. It seems to be working. I have my moments (like most teachers), but overall, my newer philosophy is working.

Some might argue, "Well that's all well and good for you. Where are you? Nowhere, North Dakota? Out here in the real world it's a lot different." I'll accept that argument. I will not be teaching in a city...ever.

However, there are a lot of successful public schools all over our country that have mastered the concept of classroom management. They are in all sorts of communities. They get no choice about the students who come in, yet they work what seem like miracles. Their secret is strong administration, strong teachers, strong curriculum, and a "no-excuses" philosophy. As soon as we start saying, "Well, today's TV generation just can't sit still" or "These inner city kids just can't function in a classroom" we practice bigotry. Imagine saying these same sentences with racial groups.


We all have things to learn about classroom management. Today I let two classes get away with more than I should have. The difference is that tomorrow I'll go back and continue the fight and try to do better. Other schools (and teachers) will buy microphones and speakers rather than deal with the problem.

*******************

Sorry about missing so many days of posting. Midterms came and went and it was a busy time!
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"Hottie Educators"

Posted by Waski_the_Squirrel on Monday, September 17, 2007 10:29:11 PM
Welcome to the strangest education news I've read in months!

Education Week is looking for the hottest figures in education. For some reason, I'm not on their list!

Peter Brimelow described the NEA convention as an "indoor rally for human hot air balloons" in his book, the Worm in the Apple. He was referring to the girth of the attendees who apparently "waddle and wobble with thighs like tree trunks." I've never attended the NEA convention, so I can't back this up, but it certainly is the stereotype.

How often are educators presented as attractive in the media? Most often, this occurs when the teacher is meant to be sympathetic or a sex object of some sort.

Actually, after perusing the list of hottest figures in education, I'm not offended by not being on their list. Ted Kennedy? All modesty aside, I'm far better looking, and not just because of our relative ages. Jon Schnur: average. Tim Knowles: ok, but it is a drawing, not a photograph.

As for the women on the list: Wendy Kopp looks more like a smug kid (perhaps she looks better off her book cover). Nina Rees looks all right in a girl-next-door sort of way.

Hotties? No. Thinking back over my days as both teacher and student, I can recall attractive teachers, but never any I would consider "hotties."

Currently, there are 10 nominees for the current year. They include Margaret Spellings, Pamela Rogers (perhaps hot in the wrong way), Barack Obama, Chris Dodd, and Jeanne Allen (who looks more motherly than hot).

This all brings me back to an important question about me: hot or not?

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Going Your Own Way

Posted by Waski_the_Squirrel on Thursday, September 13, 2007 10:34:27 PM
I respect and like individuals. Even if I don't agree with the individual or like their personality, I respect him. The individual can stand on his own without following the current of the mindless herd around him. The sheep will try to drag him down into the mud with them and they will cast him out from the herd. If he is truly an individual, he will survive.

A common slur against the individual is "selfish" another is "egotistical" or "anti-social." Sheep have many ways to force the individual to conform.

School is a great place to watch the sheep. Individuals are attacked over silly things like clothing, some part of their physical appearance, not drinking, good grades, poor grades, athletic skill, lack of athletic skill...it doesn't matter. The different is brutally ground under as the sheep destroy the individual, all doing so in the name of being "cool." In fact, the word "cool" is sometimes a synonym for "sheep."

There are moments that we love our individuals. When there is a war or a crisis and we need a leader, the individual is loved and respected. Once he is no longer needed, we turn on him, tear him down. We don't want individuals. We want sheep. Sheep don't challenge us or show us what we could be.

I get tired of the low-class attitude of parents and students who tear down the student who doesn't find her fun in a bottle. These same scum tear down the student who gets good grades because he works hard and studies. This proletariat chooses to attack the athletic superstar through jealousy or "it doesn't matter". Our culture likes good athletes, but only admires the truly great ones when we don't know them on a personal level. We like smart people too, but not personally.

I've watched great people allow sheep to tear them down. I have succumbed to the sheep from time to time (most of us have at various points). We never feel proud for having done so, but we feel the relief of a loser because the sheep leave us alone. We feel proud for accomplishments.

I challenge us all (and myself) to stand up. Do things, accomplish things. Don't worry when the sheep say you work too hard or you have no life, or any of their other feeble braying attempts to drag the individual into the mud. Although a lot of sheep are hard to ignore, a sheep really is a stupid animal that requires shepherds to guide it and protect it. Be smarter and better than the sheep.
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High School as a Highlight

Posted by Waski_the_Squirrel on Wednesday, September 12, 2007 10:47:37 PM
It is really sad when high school becomes the highlight of a person's life. When people look back at high school thinking how great life was, it is unfortunate that it was only a blip in a long and meaningless life.

I drive a nice car right now. Not to brag, but it's a 2000 Toyota Camry, V-6, 5-speed, and black. I bought it used a few years ago. Prior to that, I owned a 1990 Geo Prizm, also a 5-speed but quite a bit less nice. I bought that car in summer of 1998 to use when I student taught. It was my first car. Before that, I could drive my parents' car (a decidedly unsexy 1987 Ford Tempo -- though it also had a 5-speed). Of course, I only got to drive it when needed (not as a commuter to school). In college, I had no vehicle available. I either walked or I did without.

Getting that Geo Prizm was a great experience. Replacing it was great.

Now, imagine my parents had bought me a new car back in high school. The cars after that would be quite a let down because it would be quite a while before I could afford a new car. (I'm 31 and still couldn't buy a new car). When I look out into the parking lot through my classroom window, I see brand new cars. Some are boring sedans, but there are Mustangs, pick-ups, and others.

Most of my students have more electronics than I did at their age. Partly it is because more is available. Partly these toys have been bought: cellphones (that do so much more than provide mobile phone service), iPods, video games, and various home entertainment equipment. When these kids get out and begin supporting themselves, it will be a shock when they can't get these toys, the nice clothes, etc. Their lifestyles will take a nosedive. High School will have been the highlight. All downhill afterwards.

I remember the thrill of driving home the Geo Prizm. I even remember the thrill of the Camry. I was thrilled when I bought my first (and still current) computer. I finally bought a digital camera and am extremely thrilled still. These are the thrills of adulthood. I finally get to have nice stuff (slowly), I have the freedom to come and go as I please, I have the freedom to live where I want, and I love being an adult. As a kid, I didn't have that freedom. Of course, my freedom comes with responsibility, but it's a good trade.

For a child who had a lot of freedom (or maybe license), adulthood is not an improvement. It's a loss. They don't gain freedom and they get responsibility tossed on as well. Again, high school becomes their highlight.

When I see kids drinking and partying, I don't think it's cool. I see kids who are spoiled. Is that what their highlight is made of? Is life so empty that fun and happiness must be found in the bottom of a bottle? Without the responsibility of adulthood, perhaps it is. When adulthood strikes, once again, they won't be able to have as much of what they perceive as fun. High school is the highlight.

Now, a pessimist will read the preceding and declare that today's youth are lost. An optimist reads it and realizes that this is a small part of our youth, but a big part of what our culture perceives as normal. Movies and TV show teens living this sad lifestyle, but only the wealthier teens with weaker parents actually live it for real. The rest feel deprived. I see an opportunity to change our culture both in our schools and as members of society.

For those parents whose children I just described: stop spoiling your kids! You are stealing the fun of adulthood from them.
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What about the top kids?

Posted by Waski_the_Squirrel on Thursday, September 06, 2007 11:02:13 PM
Schools contain a diverse population.  Students range from the special education population to the gifted population and everyone in between.

During my junior year of high school, my home state began an experiment with "outcomes based education." The idea was noble. Students were expected to learn certain things. I've spoken in favor of this idea before on my blog. Unfortunately, the interpretation and implementation was not this. It became larded with a number of creepy moral ideas. It was also interpreted to mean that the whole class couldn't move ahead until everyone had mastered the concept.

When the logical question was asked about the kids who "got it", the answer given was that they could engage in tutoring or "enrichment activities." I asked a teacher about the advanced kids. His answer was that the school didn't need to worry about them because they would do fine regardless. I found this chilling (even as a junior in high school). What was worse was when he followed this up with a comment that we didn't want them to get too far ahead from the rest anyway.

Outcomes based education has fallen out of favor. Even this teacher did not like it after he tried it and did turn around to finally become a good teacher. Its current incarnation, standards-based education, is a lot less larded down with politics. It has also been accompanied by a move toward "differentiated instruction" which recognizes that different students move at different rates and in different ways.

I'm not good at individualizing instruction, at least not yet. I aim my class toward the top end and then provide lots of review on homework to catch up the slower kids. I try to push them to a higher level/

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/26/AR2007082600909.html?hpid=opinionsbox1

No Child Left Behind has been a necessary reform because it reminds schools that they can't just allow kids to slip through the cracks. Unfortunately, as a recent MSNBC article (link above -- Townhall's hyperlink editor still isn't working) points out, it neglects the top end. I would add that it also neglects the great wide middle.

Schools get hammered by NCLB if a certain percentage of students do not make a cut score. In fact, if even one group in the school doesn't make this cut score, they get hammered. Naturally, the high end and the middle will make this cut score, so schools are focusing on the bottom end.

Classes at some schools are mind-numbing tedium. I know a girl who went to college in the deep South. She tutored reading in one of the really bad city schools down there. She hated it because she wasn't helping kids learn to read. She was teaching them to take tests. Accountability is good, but it does not mean schools should suddenly start shooting for the bottom.

I love to read. I also love to write. I write books (and blogs) as a hobby. I have trouble getting my work done because I read too much. I even have trouble getting to movies I rent because of my bad reading habit. I've always been this way. Oddly enough, I hated reading in school. Reading class was unbelievably boring. Luckily, I'd discovered how fun it was outside school. I hated the tedious worksheets. This turns many kids off to school and academic pursuits.

The article notes that gifted students are getting pulled out of schools in favor of private schooling or homeschooling. I say that's good. We cannot sacrifice our high achievers on the altar of NCLB. They should be pushed and encouraged to do more and go further. That may sound like tracking, but I believe tracking got a bad reputation because the "slower" groups received substandard education, not because the concept is bad.
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Surrender or Hold Firm?

Posted by Waski_the_Squirrel on Thursday, September 06, 2007 12:07:10 AM
Should schools surrender or hold firm in the face of current cultural change. At the risk of sounding like John Kerry, the answer to this question is nuanced. There is no blanket answer.

Schools should not embrace contemporary clothing standards. I don't care to see any excessive student flesh or undergarments. I also do not care to see that of my colleagues. It doesn't matter if the person in question has the figure to carry it off well (most don't). It's a matter of holding the line on appropriate dress. Yes, that was me in the ripped jeans, filthy shoes, and ragged t-shirt mowing his lawn at 6:00 this evening. A few hours before I was dressed professionally in a tie, shirt, dress slacks, and well-polished shoes. Appropriate dress! (In the interest of honesty, I did remove my tie and unbutton my top button on Tuesday when the temperatures in my classroom wandered into the nineties.)

Schools should not embrace contemporary social language. What might be said or talked about with friends, one does not talk about with teachers or in school (at least where the teacher can hear).

These things are quite easy. I realize that there are some parents who will fight almost to the death for their child's right to dress as a prostitute in school. Fortunately, most parents recognize that matching clothing to situation is a useful life skill.

What about some other contemporary innovations? There are teachers in my school who haven't changed their teaching style since they entered the field. Here we start sounding like John Kerry. If they are successful, I really question why they would change.

However, what if they could be better? What if they are not successful but are just too lazy or afraid to change. A math teacher next door to me uses quite traditional methods, but is very successful. I'm not going to suggest she change. In a lot of ways I don't want her to change because I want Physics students who actually can do math.

What about technology? Some teachers have embraced it whole-heartedly. Sometimes it's beneficial, sometimes it is not. Other teachers fear it.

I've been using an online program called Blackboard. It was originally intended for teaching courses online rather than in the classroom. I put my handouts on it along with my notes. I also allow students to submit homework with it. I hope, in the future, to do more with it and, perhaps, begin teaching online with it.

I create Powerpoint presentations (except I use Open Office) of my notes. For other things, I use a tablet that allows me to write on the computer rather than the board. Some teachers argue that by putting these things online I eliminate the need for students to take responsibility. I argue that this puts more responsibility on them. They cannot claim to have missed notes. They cannot claim that they couldn't see the board. They can't even claim that they missed school due to sickness and missed the notes. They are all there.

It puts the responsibility on the student to understand.

Some teachers have embraced podcasts. I'm not there yet, but I also can't quite imagine taping myself. What would someone make of my hawk noises or my rabbit imitation today? All I can say is that it seemed like a good idea at the time, until I heard my students telling other students about it in the hall afterwards (with imitations). Then it was embarrassing.

So, in a John Kerry answer, some change is good, some is bad. Each change needs to be evaluated on its own merits.
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Cramming Doesn't Help Retention

Posted by Waski_the_Squirrel on Wednesday, September 05, 2007 2:09:35 AM
Most of us have done it. We have a test to study for and we wait until the night before and then start studying. They try to cover everything in that night. Math teachers make that mistake as well, apparently. When they teach a new skill and then assign 20 problems on the skill as homework, they are cramming. They aren't getting the long-term retention.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/08/070829122934.htm

Saxon Math, for all of its faults, does do a good job reviewing. It is not a text that crams. It introduces a skill in a lesson and then about 5 of the problems on that skill as homework. For the rest of the assignment (20 to 30 problems total) they review previous topics.

I taught a slower Algebra class with this book. It was particularly good with them. They needed that continual review for several reasons. They were weak in math. The second was that they lacked study skills (or even the desire to study). This review and lack of cramming enabled them to learn math. It enabled them to remember it.

Saxon is great for this level of student. Many studies have shown it to be so. That's because Saxon understands how students remember things. More advanced students who more quickly and easily remember things are likely to find this book quite boring and perhaps repetitious.

Now, this is not to say that Saxon doesn't have its faults. Saxon is too jumpy. I'd like to see it develop a certain area of general topics before jumping to something new. I think this would better help students master a general topic.

I've looked at their Physics book. I even obtained a set of copies from a neighboring school district that shut down. It has good qualities and I use it as a source of problems. However, it treats Physics too much as a math course. I am in favor of doing problems in a Physics class and my students often tell me I do too many. However, Saxon assigns only problems as homework. I've seen a lot of students who can handle the math without understanding a thing.

Saxon Physics also suffers the same weakness as the math books. It does not focus on one theme. It jumps around from topic topic. Today I might be working on momentum, tomorrow on lenses. There is no storyline.

Nevertheless, I salute Saxon for recognizing, back in the 1980's, how students learn and how they remember things. For all its weaknesses, it's a good program.
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Lesson Plans and Unions?

Posted by Waski_the_Squirrel on Monday, September 03, 2007 3:03:27 PM
Normally, the idea of lesson plans is not controversial. In any business, you make a plan of things to do for the week. Teaching is the same. I can't imagine going into a week without knowing what I'm going to do. I'd forget something and I'd end up making up my lab supplies the day of the lab (if I remembered to do the lab).

In most schools, you turn in lesson plans about one week before that week starts. Townhall's hyperlink manager seems to be down once again, so this is the link I'll be referring to:

http://teachers.net/mentors/beginning_teachers/topic11462/9.01.07.13.57.07.html

I occasionally contribute to a teachers' chatboard. Recently, a discussion came up about lesson plans. It started innocently enough. A new teacher asked how far in advance lesson plans were due at other schools.

Although some teachers answered the question that was asked, there was quite an impressive attempt to turn it into union proselytizing. Apparently, if you work in a school with a strong union, you don't need to do lesson plans. At least this was the utopian vision of one teacher. One teacher mentioned working in a school without a union and was told that he should form one.

Toward the end, I gave my opinion on lesson plans and tacked on a paragraph about unions. I was actually quite kind. I didn't mention the faults of unions at all. I simply dismissed the canard that unions are the only way to have liability and legal protection, and then I noted that one should join a union because of belief in unions. Naturally, I was attacked for this and blamed for the low wages teachers have.

That's making me think it's time to write about that topic.

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Football Hijinks

Posted by Waski_the_Squirrel on Saturday, September 01, 2007 1:16:37 AM
Who says today's kids are dumb? Tonight, after a spectacular loss during my high school's football game, I read about a clever football prank.

It seems that a senior in Ohio decided to pull a prank on a rival school. He made a grid of the seats in the stadium. Then he purchased poster boards in two colors: dark and light. He wrote instructions on the poster boards to hold them up at the beginning of the third quarter. The spectators went along and held up the poster boards. To those who could see the big picture, they clearly spelled out, "We Suck."

Admittedly, some sort of punishment is in order. His prank will lead to imitators who will try to top it in some way. The school gave him 3 days in-school suspension and then expelled him from all after school activities.

I'm not going to debate the school's punishment. I'm not in administration, so I don't have to make decisions about things like this. However, I can say that the kid was quite clever and patient in putting this prank together.



It made me smile after a depressing 7-50 loss to a school 1/4 my school's size in the strangest football game I've ever watched. We played 11-man football when they were on defense. When they were on offense, we played 8-man football. Normally my school plays 11-man. I've never seen a game like it. I'm really depressed about our future playing 11-man teams in our class.
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