Blog 16-Military students

While searching for an article this week on the New York Times website I came across an article that really interested me because this last anniversary of 9/11 I realized my students weren’t even born yet. We have been at war for a number of years now and for some of our students have had it apart of their entire life. The article I read discussed the emotional problems that are being seen in students due to parents or family members being deployed to war. Before I continue think of your own life, do you know someone who has been deployed or maybe is right now? Without thinking more than ten seconds I can think of four people that I know who have fought in Iraq. Two of the four have a wife and young children. Now that you have those people on your mind, how did you/do you feel when they are leaving or gone? How is life when they return, did it return to normal? I’m sure you don’t have the most pleasant thoughts in your mind right now but can you imagine being a child or teenager with these thoughts? That is a very adult situation to deal with.
A recent study interviewed 1,500 children ranging from the ages of 11 and 17. Of those interviewed, 95% of the deployments were 11 months long. The researcher shared that students are missing school functions, feeling alone with no one they feel understanding their problem and having large responsibility at home which can affect their academics. I can’t imagine what these students are going through. I have also heard of some families having difficulties adjusting to life after deployment which will most likely affect a child as well. For many cases they get life back to normal and the soldier is called back up to duty and the icky cycle starts again. I have personally not had any students who have had military parents/family members so I have not had to help these students but that can change any day. Have you had any students from military families? Our school has a great support system and our counselor is always willing to meet with students individually or with small groups but I wonder if that would be enough. I would love to hear what schools have done or your experiences.
In the article it stated that students who live on a military base do better during deployment and they assume this is due to the support on a military base. They provide more services for military families. I would also assume that students on military bases are also more used to the military life because they live in it. I have friends who have lived and worked on a military base in Alaska and they said the schools are a little different. All students are familiar with military life and have more experience with deployment situations. Has anyone working on a military base? Do the schools there do anything extra to help these students?

Blog 15-Fundraising

The number of hours and days in school has been a hot topic this semester. Most schools are trying to add hours or days to their school year but many find this difficult due to funds. This is no different for public schools in Chicago. According to an article from The New York Times, Chicago schools have the lowest number of school hours in the country. Obama’s administration is urging a change and the $4 billion dollars of education money is enough motivation to make changes but Chicago’s Public Schools currently have no money to do so. It would cost their 417,000 students $208 million to attend school longer than the current 5 hours and 8 minutes (from what I understand some schools only attend 4 days a week as well). I was shocked to read that these students only attend school for about 5 hours. From my knowledge most ND students are in school about 7 hours and charter schools in Chicago also attend school for about 7 hours.
I’m sure you as educators can all agree that Chicago Public Schools need to find some kind of solution so their students can receive more education. In negotiations teachers were willing to extend the school day as long as they were paid and of course that is where the high amount of funds is needed. I don’t have the answer but Chicago parents are trying to help out. Parents at one school are trying to pull together to raise $100,000 by fundraising to put towards the cause of longer school days. That would be about $385 per students which is a lot to ask for saying many of these students are coming from low income homes. I really commend these parents although it is a drastic amount of money and I’m not sure it is parent’s responsibility to find these dollars. What do you think?
I know when we fundraise parents usually complain and say they would rather just write a check rather than do another kind of fundraiser. Currently, we fundraise once a year and it buys new playground equipment but this year some of us teachers would like to have the money buy guided reading books for primary grades and other elementary grades if there are extra funds. We all do guided reading but are using a website that allows you to print black and white books. The site costs money and currently our PTO funds that but overall the books get boring and I think it would make a big difference if we have a nice guided reading library. I was so excited about this idea but now find myself a little torn because I think the schools should be taking a little more responsibility with these money issues. I don’t know if I think it is fair that our PTO is paying for our current books. These books are a part of our curriculum so why isn’t the school footing the bill? What are your thoughts on this as a teacher or parent? Our district has great parent involvement so our parents would probably never make a big deal about this but is this right?

Blog 14-Get ready for the "K-SAT"

I have taught kindergarten before and currently teach first grade so I have participated in kindergarten screening and I do find it an important tool for the school and future teachers. I recently found an article in the New York Times about the screening tests that are used for kindergarteners who want to get into a private school. On the east coasts kindergarten students are being assessed as part of an application process to the school. What is becoming a problem is that some parents are paying for special tutoring sessions to prep their youngster for the admissions test. Private schools are saying they frown upon tutoring for these students because they want the assessment to show the child’s true abilities not the tutoring sessions that teaches to the test.
I find all of this very interesting! First off, I agree that the screening or assessments used are only beneficial if is the true child’s abilities showing. I also cannot believe that parents are paying up to $1,000 for this special tutoring or books for home use that cost up to $90. These are four year olds so the information they need to know if information all parents should know and be able to teach. In my opinion a little parent involvement goes a long ways. I strongly believe that if parents play with their child frequently and “teach” them (play games, read books, talk about the world around them, etc) their child be a successful preschooler and do well in kindergarten. I also think these tutoring sessions are way too stressful for such a young child. The tutoring sessions work on aspects of the test and prepare a child to sit for an hour. An hour! I find that shocking. I have students who are six and seven and can’t sit for an hour, I don’t know if I believe that a three or four year old should be forced to sit that long. These are some of my own personal professional opinions on the matter and I would be interested in what others think. Would you pay for special tutoring?

Blog 13-To restain or not to restrain?

We all have diverse students in our classroom and in my personal opinion we are seeing more and more students with labels and unique situations. If you live under a rock or have a perfect classroom I’m talking about emotionally disturbed students, special education students, autistic students, etc. I had a large number of classes on these disabilities but I don’t think anything can train you for the real life situations. I currently have an emotionally disturbed child but his meds keep him in control and I’ve been lucky so far this year but that doesn’t mean I haven’t restrained a child. I work in a school with six classrooms (only K and 1) so we find out pretty quick if a child is losing it and if back up is needed. In the last couple years we have had a large number of students with emotional problems that cause them to be physically dangerous to themselves or others. Our district did its part and provided free training on how to properly deal with these students. The first steps are to prevent blow ups and the last resort is physical restraints. You might think, great you should be set to go but sadly I feel far from trained. I can’t even remember what the official class was called or the exact procedures.
I have had to restrain two separate students and it was very interesting. Neither of them were my students but I was a backup in one situation and I was the one teacher right there who had to handle the student before they ran away. It was a very tiring process and we honestly did not have any other option although I can say those two situations have been the only two in the last two years. Sadly, this isn’t the case in Texas.
I read an article from The Texas Tribune that stated there were 18,000 restraints used last year in their schools. There have even been a number of situations where a student was injured and in one situation a student died of suffocation when a teacher was sitting on him to restrain him. The article includes pictures of one injured student. Many Texans are outraged over these statistics. I understand that these statistics are scary but many of these situations are very dangerous at times. In one situation in Texas a student was restrained after he stabbed his teacher, call me crazy but I think restraints were necessary here. Another example I have happened right here in ND. A first grade student was going belligerent and could not be controlled but restraints are very much not urged. The special education teachers were doing their best without restraints and he ended up kicking a window and breaking it. Do you think a restraint should have been used before a window was broken? Have you had to restrain students? What should be done? Some schools have hired professionals that are very educated to handle these students but many schools might not have this privilege. What are your thoughts?

Blog 12-Teachers getting a grade

As teachers we are constantly assessing our students to ensure that they are being successful. We want our students to be given the best education so they can succeed in the future. Their best education starts with great educators and we know that there are fantastic educators out there; many of you are reading this. President Obama made a recent speech in Wisconsin stating that we need to give our students the best education so they can get degrees and work successfully in the job world. What can schools do to provide students the best education? To start we can make sure that the best educators are in the classroom. I think this is where we can start making some changes. I want you to think about how you as a teacher are evaluated. Currently in my teaching position I am evaluated once a year by my principal. After he observes one of my lessons we discuss what my strengths and weaknesses are and what needs to be improved. That right there in a nut shell is how my performance is evaluated. Once in awhile my principal pokes his head in and looks over my lessons plans when I email them weekly. In your opinion is this enough to evaluate a teacher’s performance? If we were grading our students, would one assessment be enough? Are you evaluated differently? Do you think schools are doing enough to evaluate their teacher’s performance?
In the article it discusses the current “firewall” that does not allow student’s test scores to measure teacher performance. Some propose that this changes. Wisconsin is possibility going to get rid of the current firewall and use test scores in the future to grade teacher’s performance. What are your thoughts on this? I think this could be a small component to use as a teacher evaluation. Do you think I’m totally crazy thinking this? I understand that a class can be very unique but some tests (MAP for example) shows growth for each student as individuals. Again, I think this should be a small way to evaluate a teacher. If a teacher’s students are continuously not showing progress on assessments wouldn’t that show something about the teacher? In Wisconsin, if test scores are eventually used to evaluate teacher’s performance it is guaranteed that teachers cannot receive suspension or terminations from their job from these results. I believe it would take more than test scores for that type of action.
More about Wisconsin’s decision to use test scores is included in this article. Some Chicago schools may also be starting to evaluate their teachers by student’s progress. This new move is being supported by Obama’s administration and has very mixed feelings. What are yours?

Blog 11-Bullies...what now?

I’m sure we can all think of a student who was/is bullied in school or on the school bus. It’s a sad situation and it seems to be getting worse. I have read a few articles about recent bullying and I’m starting to think it’s becoming more noticeable in younger grades and we aren’t doing enough about it.
I have seen two personal examples of recent bullying of a sixth grade and ninth grade boy. In both situations the bullying has been ongoing. In one situation spitting was the main form of bulling and it ended in punches and stolen money. The sixth grade situation was the typical vocal blows but it involved large amounts of swearing. It just amazes me that kids are swearing at such a young age and are using it bully situations. In an article from the New York Times a girl was raped by a group of men. It was done at the end of a dance in the school courtyard. The school has now increases security. Another article I read was from a local Mississippi newspaper. It discusses the rise of female bullies. Girls take bulling to a new level. They get very personal and emotional. This has become so popular that they have even made a movie called, Mean Girls.
So now that we know there is a huge problem what do we do as educators? Well I wish I had that easy answer but I don’t know if anyone does. I do have a suggestion for myself and any other educator. I think we need to start early, really early! I have seen kindergarten and first grade students (mainly girls) start “popular” groups or leave the same students out. As a teacher I know that some students don’t mesh well together and to be honest I try to avoid confrontation and I do not push students to work with students they don’t care for. I’m starting to think that I need to stop that and teach student’s tolerance and acceptance of different people. I want my students to learn that we don’t have to be best friends with everyone but we need to show mutual respect for everyone I think the younger we can start teaching this the better off we will be. As a teacher I also hope to promote an open door policy where student can always come to me if someone is bothering them. This is something I need to take seriously. I also want to be a fly on the wall as much as possible so I can know my students and try to prevent harmful bully situations.
I do not work with any type of older students and my bully problems can usually be handled easily but is there anything new happening out there to decrease bully situations? I was crushed when I heard of the two situations. I never would have guessed that students could be that mean. I feel that something has to be done or else we are going to have some scary situations to deal with.

Blog 10-"Sick" of make-up work!

We have all been bombarded by news of the swine flu but I think many of us are now seeing the swine flu in action. I believe we have encountered flu season a little early this year and I am seeing the affects more this year than I have ever in the past. In my school that has six classrooms of kindergarten and first grade students for a total of 91 students had an average of 23 students gone each day last week. We also had two of six teachers gone for a day. The students that are missing school are usually out for about 3-5 days. In my classroom I had 7 of 16 students gone for two days and I now have a huge pile of make-up work for these students.
I read an article from the St. Cloud newspaper that discusses similar problems. Many of their schools have had large numbers of students gone and teachers as well as students are having trouble keeping up with all of the work students are missing. Parents are calling to pick up make up homework and some teachers are having trouble keeping up with those demands. When students return they are overwhelmed at the work they have missed. Some of the teachers have tried to offer lessons students have missed online through blogs. Other teachers have just been scaling back on homework. They will spend some class time reviewing the previous day lesson and only assign the necessary homework in hopes that students won’t feel so overwhelmed when they return. I also found online that Scholastic has 20 days of work that students can work on while they are missing school. I didn’t find it super helpful but it is a nice resource to have available and I give Scholastic credit for trying to help!
I think schools and teachers are doing the best they can in this situation but I am finding myself and my class is a tough situation. Last week I slowed down my teaching and did lots of reviewing so the students missing didn’t miss so many new concepts but I can only do that for so long. The long weekend helped so the students missing had some extra days to recover but they still have a large pile of work to do when they return. I have gone through and picked what I find necessary for them to complete but I still feel that I need to go back and do some re-teaching for the handful of students who missed all three days last week. Is that the right decision or should I just send the work home and hope that parents do their part and catch their child up so the rest of my class isn’t sitting there bored or should I be letting students go home with little homework since many are still working to get healthy? Have you had similar problems in your classroom? I have not tried doing a blog or anything like that because I don’t think there is too much I could do through a blog. Have you tried anything different to help students catch up? I would love to hear anyone’s input on what the school or teachers could be doing different during this flu season because I’m afraid it’s going to be a long one.