Another School in the Wrong

If you haven't read about the students whose Valentines day cards got confiscated, you need to read this story.  I realize that there is a separation of Church and State amendment, but this is wrong.  It is one thing to take away things that can cause harm (ie. guns, knives, things with obscene language), but to take away a note that has a Bible verse on it is ridiculous.  If there is one thing that needs to be embraced, it is God and the message of love.  Why are we so tolerant of every other religion and culture, but when it comes to Christianity then that is offensive!  We are a country founded on the principals of Christianity, so that religion should be tolerated more than any other.  Schools are so ridiculous anymore.  It's no longer "Christmas Break" it's "Winter Break."  What will be next?

Black History Month

I was teaching a class and we were discussing Martin Luther King Jr. and civil rights as apart of Black History Month.  One of the students asked me "Is there a white history month?" This question got me thinking...Why do we celebrate Black History Month in 2012?  What will be next?  Will there be a LGBT month?  I may be alone in this, but I can see how this could seem like a put down to the Black community to have a month devoted to a race.  If we want to have racism end, we have to stop categorizing ourselves into races.  We have to think of us all as humans.  I can see categorizing ourselves based on the country you live in (American, Canadian, etc), but I don't think we are advancing as a society if we continue to place ourselves into categories.  I see this categorizing on everything from registration forms to job applications.  It just shows me that our society values the segregation and not unification.

The age of being connected has long been here.

What year is it?  1995? 2000? No, it's 2011 nearly 2012.  I have come to a point in my career where I am tired of excuses.  There is no reason what-so-ever that you can not get onto the internet on an almost daily basis if not mulitiple times a day.  I hate to break the news to you, but the internet is here to stay and will only evolve and get better.  So, why am I mentioning this.  Well, it's simple.  If you are teacher, you should be posting your homework, announcements, newsletters, and just about anything that has to do with your classroom on a webpage so parents and students can access information. When I hear, "what do I do with those parents that don't have a computer."  Or I hear, "what do we do with parents that don't have an internet connection?"  I
am almost shocked.  I say are you going to let the 85% of people that do have internet connection suffer for the very few that don't? 

I guess my pet peeve is that you need to be connected!  How can you apply for a job? I almost want to say: "How do you pay your bills?" but I know you can still write a check and mail it in.  Oh wait...the post office is broke and will probably shut down in a couple months or years.  I guess you better get connected and use online bill pay!

Why is Professional Development so hard to do successfully 1

We all have had to sit through some expert talk about a topic that your school or principal determined was important for the success of students. Usually this is because the school looked at the data and saw that the students struggled in one particular area (usually writing, math, or reading....it's funny how it is never science or social studies, or physical education because half the students and 75% of the staff is overweight!) Enough about that rant, the fact is that professional development is broken in most schools.  I would argue all schools, but I do not know how all schools function and if they found the magic spell to make professional development work.  One of the buzz words around the educational arena is "differentiated instruction."  You know delivering the curriculum in a way that all kids will understand (how's that working for you?).  The idea is great, but would really only work for very small group learning or ideally 1 to 1 learning.  So how does this relate to professional development?  PD has to be individualized to meet the needs of each teacher, otherwise it can be irrelevant.  And if it is irrelevant, then as a school you are wasting the time of your teachers (or some of them).  This is where online PD can be useful...to be continued

Will Vouchers Really Help?

We have all heard about using vouchers for students and their parents to choose what school to attend.  But will they work?  I argue that they won't.  Failing schools is just a term that people throw around that compares standardized test scores from one school to another.  Is it a surprise that schools with the highest scores tend to be in areas where the socio-economic-status is higher.  No!! It is a well known fact that those people with higher degrees of education make more money and therefore live in a nicer neighborhood which most of the time makes the school perform better.  So let's take the students that are economically poor and put them in a school where it has been typically attended by middle to upper class students.  Now what will happen? Will the change in school bring about higher test scores to these students?  Absolutely not! We are forgetting that student success is fostered in two ways:  1) The student takes control of their life and decides that they are going to make the most of their education. and 2) The parents are a support system for the child, they value education and encourage the child to succeed. Look what happened in the movie "The Blind Side." Did the simple fact of putting the student in a different school change anything? No! The change occurred when Michael Oher gained the support of a family.  So go ahead and voucher away...It won't change the outcomes of student test scores.

Tired out Teachers

As a facilitator, my job is to make a teachers life easier, by showing introducing and training them on how to use different technologies in the classroom.  What is so very frustrating is that sometimes I have to literally become a sales person in order to meet with teachers.  I don't know how to spell it out any differently, but if you are a "tired out teacher" because you have to grade papers, call parents, make copies, coral kids, figure out what to teach next, etc, then try to take advantage of all of the technology that is out there.  I offer it free to my teachers and I still don't get 100% buy in.  There are awesome sites like Glogster in which kids can create digital posters.  Sites like Polleverywhere, where kids can use there cell phones to text in answers.  Tons and tons of digital story-telling sites like comic creator and story bird.  Podcasting to clone yourself, so you can be at 2 places at the same time.   I understand completely that you are asked to do too much...but you can make it easier on yourselves by taking advantage of technology that is available.

Kids and Kombat

With the release of Mortal Kombat 9 yesterday, I had to write a post about it.  I was having a conversation at lunch, where a teacher bought this video game yesterday and her 5 year old boy was playing with his dad!  Now I know that everyone has a right to parent their child in their own way, but Mortal Kombat?? Look at the trailer:

I have to admit, I am a fan of Mortal Kombat, but I also have a toddler at home and thinking about the future, I don't think that I would allow him to play this game at 5 years old!  Did you see yesterday that a kindergarten student brought a loaded gun to school and it injured himself and others?  This behavior also has a lot to do with parenting.  And if I as parent choose to not allow my son to play these games, but he goes to school and learns about it from other kids whose parents do allow them to play these violent games, what should my reaction be?  To me, you have to be really conscious and aware of what is fiction and real. A 5 year old may have that ability, but most of them that I know have amazing imaginations...most of the time thinking that what they imagine could be real!  It's heartbreaking to see little kids exposed to this type of violence and desensitized to death.  It makes me think why some people may not appreciate the sacrifice of our past and present soldiers or dare I say the sacrifice of Jesus.