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A Lot of F's

Posted by Waski_the_Squirrel on Wednesday, January 30, 2008 10:52:04 PM
I have had the experience of utterly failing to teach something or make any sense to my students. I can usually tell when I give tests or quizzes. As I've become a better teacher, I usually know sooner. As we practice things in class or work on homework, I can walk around the room and get a good indication of what my students are learning.

So what happens when I give a quiz and students earn themselves a bunch of F's?

What I did was to first look at the spread of grades. Here is a quiz with many A's, many F's, 2 B's, and 2 D's. Clearly, part of the class got it. The other part of the class didn't.

Is this because I can only reach part of the class or because they didn't try?

This analysis takes longer, but the scary answer is there. I've learned to put indicator questions into my tests and quizzes. I've also learned to read the answers. When every single F (except 1) believes that plants take oxygen (or water) out of the air, that tells me that the problem isn't with me. When students cannot fill in a chart with information that has been repeated several times in several forms, I have trouble blaming myself. This is particularly true because I gave it as an open-notes quiz.

So what happens? Should I repeat the material until these kids get it or should I move on and let them fall further and further behind? (Another option is to reteach them, over and over, while the rest of the class moves on, but there is only one of me.) I have been forced to fall back on the old phrase "You can lead a student to knowledge, but you can't make him think."

It sounds cruel and heartless, especially coming from a teacher, but sometimes students need the hard slap of reality to wake them up. One of the mistakes that I think too many teachers make is to take all the responsibility for education. If the teacher is working harder than the students, are the students really learning?

I've elected to move on. Let reality slap them. When I see such a pronounced difference in kids that are not that different in ability, I cannot blame myself. I'm happy to work with struggling students. My favorite students to work with are those who have to work hard to learn. Those who won't even try cannot elicit any sympathy or guilt from me.
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Cold

Posted by Waski_the_Squirrel on Wednesday, January 30, 2008 1:04:29 AM
I like walking to work. On days I don't get any other exercise, it is a certain minimum guaranteed amount of exercise. The walk home is a stress-reliever. It's great.

Then I get a morning where I look at the thermometer with its needle pointing to -15.  The radio is describing a wind chill of quite a bit less. Suddenly the urge to either call in sick or drive to school strikes.

I don't call in sick, sometimes even if I should. Bad weather is not a reason to call in sick. I just can't see driving such a short distance, so out the door I go.

It's amazing how temperatures below 0 all feel the same. Below 0, what you need is wind to feel truly cold. I had that Tuesday morning.

I've learned a bit about my room and my house in the cold. In my room, the heaters should be avoided. They blast cold air. It sounds counterintuitive, but it's true. They work entirely by convection. There is no fan. However, if they are in an "off" cycle, cold air blasts out. In my house, the bedroom and bathroom stay warm, but only if I keep the doors closed. I could have the heat set in the 50s and they are still warm if I keep the vent open. Clearly, they are in the well-insulated part of the house.

I really do love the change of the seasons. I love cold because it helps me love spring and fall. I love hot because it helps me love spring and fall. Contrasts help me appreciate every season. Frankly, I probably would have had trouble starting my car this morning, so the walk was good. I don't plug it in unless I plan to travel. In the bitter cold, I always think twice about travel anyway. I live far enough away from civilization that car trouble is more than an inconvenience.

I suppose that the point of this rambling post was that the 4 seasons are a great thing. Each one helps us appreciate the next. Fall is my favorite, but each one has its own good points. What I am truly glad about is that school is in the winter. My classroom has decent heating. It has no air-conditioning. In the summer, my classroom would be brutal.
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Cell-phone Porn

Posted by Waski_the_Squirrel on Saturday, January 26, 2008 3:21:01 PM
If you visit the school where I teach, you will see a sign outside each locker room that forbids cell phones. My school is attempting to protect students from each other and from what could be severe bullying. Naturally, it takes more than signs and part of what is required is buy-in from students.

Allentown, Pennsylvania recently experienced the dangers of cell phones. A student at the high school there engaged in a sex act with a boy. During the course of this act, her bare breasts were photographed by someone with a cell phone camera. From the article, I don't know if she was aware that she was being photographed. To me, that is the sort of activity best performed with only two people present.

Leaving that whole to the side, what happened next was worse. The photographer decided to share the photographs she had taken. They found there way all around the school, to neighboring schools, and even out of state. Now, imagine being a teenage girl (or boy) and having all kinds of people you don't even know seeing you in this way.

One little creep started a website to celebrate these pictures. The kids passed the pictures along with no thought of the girls in the pictures. It was done for a laugh. In many cases there was probably no cruelty meant. That does NOT mean that the kids didn't know it was wrong. Sadly, too many kept silent for too long. They forgot that evil isn't just done by evil people. Evil is also done by those who sit on the sidelines and let it happen.

These horrible pictures are lose on the internet. The police will do what they can to get them contained, but they will never get them all. Make no mistake, this is devastating to the students in the pictures. It is also child pornography.

Technology brings a lot of great things, but it also makes it easier to do this. Where before we might have had a polaroid making the rounds of the school, we now have something that is loose for anyone in the world to find.

Article Link
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Social Engineering

Posted by Waski_the_Squirrel on Wednesday, January 23, 2008 11:21:10 PM
California, the land of fruits and nuts, has done it again! We may very well soon see boys in the girls' locker rooms. This began with a law that attempted to do something good.

Schools should make the effort to prevent bullying. It will happen, but the school should not endorse it or ignore it. When a teacher sees a kid getting picked on, it is the teacher's job to put a stop to it. Some kids bring it on themselves. Others just seem to be chosen for bullying due to size or personality. It is wrong to allow it. While kids do need to learn to toughen up, they also need to learn that society finds bullying behavior to be wrong.

A homosexual student is likely to be bullied. One who is confused about gender is even more likely to be bullied. My own opinion (especially in the latter case) is that there are mental issues that need to be dealt with. However, enough elements of our society have decided that gender confusion is not a mental disorder.

Kids with this kind of confusion should not be bullied. Of course, they will bring it on just by their appearance. Since the school can't forbid these children to dress or behave in this way, the school is left with a bullying problem. It can't allow it, but it will happen. Further, since the student in question believes himself to be of the other gender, he feels he doesn't belong in male locker rooms or male restrooms. Must the school now allow them to use facilities that fit their perceived gender?

Below I cited a Townhall article that believes the bill requires just that. However, it is nevertheless a bad bill. Schools need to put a stop to bullying, plain and simple. Schools should not be in the business of promoting acceptance of any kind. This bill mandates that homosexuality, gender confusion, and other such disorders be treated in a positive light. It specifically mentions discrimination based on these things. The trouble is, that this is difficult to judge and opens up schools for lots of lawsuits.

Is the small, slightly effeminate boy bullied because the kids think he's homosexual? Is it better if they bullied him for being small rather than because they thought he was gay? Can a student get revenge on his bullies by claiming to be gay and making it a discrimination issue?

Schools should stop bullying, pure and simple. Spelling out special classes of bullying and crimes based on gender, race, religion, sexual orientation, and gender confusion just creates jobs for lawyers and causes schools to over react to protect themselves from the possibility of lawsuits.

It was called Senate Bill 777. This is only one ugly facet of the bill (now law). It is specifically aimed at mandating normalization of the homosexual lifestyle. For a few references:

Townhall.com
The text of the bill
An alert from the Traditional Values Coalition
Proud Parenting believes that this is all a conservative overreaction
Sacramento Bee
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Special Education

Posted by Waski_the_Squirrel on Tuesday, January 22, 2008 1:04:30 AM
Recently, a teacher board that I occasionally post to brought up an interesting topic: inclusion. A teacher was quite upset because he had been told to slow down his class and teach so that the special ed kids could get it.

Some students are special education. Without defining that term, let me leap forward to the part of special education that led to this topic. Many schools "mainstream" special education students. The theory is that by placing them in the regular classroom, they will be influenced by the other kids to a better level. This is called "inclusion." Since they are special education students, they receive modifications and services from the special education department.

Done correctly, with the student's needs (and the needs of the other students) in mind, this can be a good thing. I have a student in one of my classes with a very low IQ who has gained a lot by being mainstreamed. Recently he took the same semester test as the regular kids without modification (other than having it read to him) and actually outperformed several kids with more than double his IQ.

For other students, it doesn't work. There are students who lack the social skills to function in a classroom. Others have such severe disabilities that they get nothing out of the regular classroom. Some have severe problems (usually behavioral) that make them too great a distraction to the regular students. This is why federal law requires that they be placed in the "Least Restrictive Environment". The regular classroom is great but not always possible.

Unfortunately, many people, including special education teachers, do not understand the law. Some choose to ignore it out of laziness or overwork. The law does not require a teacher to dumb down a class or change his teaching style to accommodate one student. Modifications might be made for that student (partially filled out notes, shortened tests, shortened homework, sometimes different curriculum goals). Nowhere does the law say that the entire class must be geared to that student.

Anyway, the post is here, misspellings and all. Some of these teachers are quite emotional and angry, and it shows in their writing.
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Credit Card Offers

Posted by Waski_the_Squirrel on Sunday, January 20, 2008 3:10:10 PM
I want to create a better world for my students. Eventually I'll reproduce as well, so I want a better world for my offspring. I've decided to do something easy and I want to encourage others to do it as well. It's environmentally friendly, it may make a better world, and it helps the post office.

Yesterday I made my weekly trip to the post office. I had 8 credit card offers in my box. I shredded all the applications, but then I paused before I ran the rest of the paperwork through.

Tomorrow I will be mailing 8 envelopes back to the credit card companies. I stuffed their paperwork back into the envelopes. I was careful not to send back anything that identified me or resembled an application.

The benefits are these:

  • The post office makes money
  • An increase in stamp prices may be delayed if enough of us do this
  • We force the credit card company to dispose of the papers instead of us
  • We may force a change in marketing tactics that reduces the amount of paper used
  • If enough of us do it, we may help put an end to predatory marketing. Credit card companies will be forced to consider whether it is worthwhile to blanket-market the nation.

Join me. This is not rudeness. I don't send the shredded applications. I don't send the extras from other companies. I just send back to the credit card company what they expect me to dispose of. If enough of us join together, we may force a change.
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Have Students Changed?

Posted by Waski_the_Squirrel on Wednesday, January 16, 2008 11:33:43 PM
In conservative circles, (and among teachers) it's great fun to reminisce about some "golden age" of family values and committed, involved students. Mysteriously, everything changed due to some outside forces. Sometimes we blame a faceless "society" or "Hollywood" or "TV."

I had an interesting discussion at lunch on Friday with some teachers who went to school where I now teach. They talked about running to South Dakota during lunch hour to grab a couple of beers before running back to school for the afternoon. At that time, the drinking age was 18 in South Dakota. In North Dakota it was 21. One of these teachers was in her 50's.

Another teacher attended school in a neighboring district (now closed) which is housed in a 3-story building. She remembered coming into study hall (as a student) to observe one student dangling another out the window from a third story classroom.  Another used to help out his father (who was janitor at that time) and copy down answer keys to tests while he cleaned classrooms. A music teacher I know used to design and carry out elaborate plans for destruction in her science lab. This sweet grandmother is in her mid sixties.

My point is that while there have been changes, students are still students. One of the biggest changes between now and then is that the adults in their lives let them get away with more. Where at one time, a student might be punished for doing exactly what the teacher once did, it's easy now for teachers (and parents) to feel guilty.

We even give students ammunition. My Physics class came in last week excited because their composition teacher had told them about smoking marijuana in high school. Then she compounded this error by noting that, "anyone from that era who says they didn't is a liar." Now, she does teach over ITV from a school about 90 miles away.  She has done a successful job of undermining the "don't do drugs" message and of undermining the respectability of other teachers, especially those in that 50-60 range.

It is a hard lesson to learn. When a teacher is around kids all day, it is easy to say more than you should. I've been guilty of it. (Luckily, my sins did not involve marijuana.) It is a hard but important lesson for teachers to remember that these are students, not peers or friends. When we start sharing our youthful transgressions, we lower ourselves ever closer to their level. There are things that they don't need to know about us until they're adults. That line must be there. They always want to push that line and, in weak moments, it's easy to let them.

As I noted, I'm guilty of this. We all are from time to time. We realize it sometimes at the time, sometimes later when they throw it back in our face. Consider the classic example of the former hippie who finds some marijuana in his child's room. If the child knows all about her father's leaf-infused past, she is likely to toss it at him with a line like, "I didn't do anything different than you." Of course she's right in one sense, but that doe not make the behavior right.

Guarding our past isn't lying or keeping secrets. It is part of maintaining our respectability with friends, students, children, and family. There are moments when something can be brought up: "You know, son, I didn't like my history teacher much. He was always rude to us. Once I keyed his car. I found out later he'd never had a chance to marry because he spent all of his free time taking care of his sick mother." This is a chance to teach empathy. It's much better than, "Wow I remember the time I keyed my history teacher's car. He was such a jerk."

As I get older, it gets easier and easier to keep that line between student and teacher. The origin of the character Waski the Squirrel is now relegated to: "He's a cartoon I drew in college to make my girlfriend laugh." The rest of that whole relationship is one they don't need to know about.
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Semester Exams

Posted by Waski_the_Squirrel on Sunday, January 13, 2008 1:32:13 PM
At my school, we just finished up a round of semester exams. No one enjoys semester exams.I did not have a whole lot of free time recently. My students either stressed about the tests and studied frantically, or they moved on in an apathetic haze. Some may have picked up the book the night before, but without the understanding of how to study, it didn't do much good.

What semester exams should be showing us is what students learned. In one section of my sophomore Biology, my conclusion is "not much." For my other classes, I'm satisfied, if not thrilled.

Quite a lot goes into education. It is easy to focus on academic content. However, if I simply present the material, that does not make my students educated. Perhaps if I were a better teacher, my students would become educated. That isn't it either.

What we neglect in our schools is study skills. In many classes, students do not need to study. In those classes where they do need to study, they are lost. A cynic might dismiss this as apathy or laziness. While those may be factors, they are not the only factors.

Imagine being a student for a moment. You study your Biology book and notes for hours. You come in, take the test, and it is gibberish. You don't see what you studied anywhere. For some students, this is the needed push for redoubled studying efforts. For others, it is enough to just give up.

What students rarely look at (and no one helps them to look at) is what happened during that studying. In our schools, we have trained students to memorize terms, algorithms, and facts. Successful regurgitation of these things leads to success in class. While these things are important, they are not all there is to becoming an educated person.

The educated person can use and apply the terms, algorithms, and facts at his command to new situations. Do you want the mechanic who runs through a checklist to diagnose the problems on your car and says, "You need a new starter." Or, would you prefer the one who can think through the situation and then say, "The solenoid in your starter has gone bad."

This is why we should be emphasizing thinking in schools. I'm pretty good about putting it on tests, but I'm weaker in the classroom. The section of Biology I alluded to earlier was evidence of this weakness.

I've been working hard to have less lecture and more of students doing, reading, and concluding on their own. It is an ongoing adjustment.  One of the greatest problems I've had with the switch over the years is student attitudes. I do not mean this in a critical sense. I simply mean in the sense of how they interpret the roles of student and teacher.

I'll get into that tomorrow, and I'll try really hard to start posting more regularly again. With semester exams, learning a new program, and the travels of Christmas break, I've let this blog slide.
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