When Kids Go Good

Most of the news about teachers, students, and education in general is pretty negative. There is usually some sexual misconduct or gangs or lack of money or just general disarray involved.

But every now and then, kids go good.

Our school does an Angel Tree for children in need every Christmas. Since most of our students are in need, it's hard to find people who can afford to give what little they have to someone else. The Angel Tree is still pretty full and we are getting closer and closer to Christmas. The economy is bad and times are hard for everyone. But, today, the Newberry High Student Government made a sizable dent in the number of needy children still listed on that tree. They did what they could to fulfill wishes for the upcoming Christmas.

As a class, without telling them what we were doing, we all went down to the guidance office and I showed them the tree. In pairs, I had them each pick one child off the tree. Then I gave them the Wal-Mart credit card and told them that each pair could have $30 out of the SGA accounts to make wishes come true. The excitement is something serious! Sure, they aren't giving of themselves, so to speak. But it is giving. And that is what the season is all about--doing for others.

So they went off to Wal-Mart as a class with their instructions to do good for someone else today. And they went above and beyond my expectations. They came back with bags and bags of clothes and diapers and dolls and games. The excitement of doing good for someone else was palpable.

Today we are spreading Christmas cheer by doing good. I believe that we are all innately good creatures...we just need some prodding and assistance. And sometimes teenagers will surprise you. One of my kids chipped in $40 of his own money to buy diapers and bath stuff for a little boy. It's sad to me that a parent needs diapers so bad that they make a Christmas list, but my heart swells with what this young man did today. On his own. In the true Christmas spirit.

So the next time you read about gangs and drug busts and violence, remember that with a little guidance, we can take the average teenager and turn them into a modern day Santa Claus.

Making a list, and checking it twice...

And the list of naughty students is doubling! Where did all the nice ones go?

We have one more day this week and sometimes I wonder if I'll make it. We are in the midst of a deep freeze, exams are looming, and my students either don't care or are so overwhelmed that they can't possibly juggle everything that has to be done.

'Tis the season, eh?

I am noticing that students are snappier than they typically are. They have been quicker to be disrespectful and not near quick enough to back down and say "yes, ma'am." Where is the Christmas spirit?

I'm going to join in this Grinch-ish behavior by giving a vocabulary test tomorrow. Let's keep them busy on the Friday before exams. Hopefully the weekend will get them settled down for one more week.

My Grown-Up Christmas List

Here is the newest scenario that is making public education look ineffective. Instead of counting students who enter in ninth grade and graduate in four years, the powers that be are counting students in the eighth grade that graduate in five years in order to calculate graduation rates. Fair? Before you jump to say yes, of course, think about this...

If the student moves between 8th and 9th grades, he/she is considered a drop out.

If the student has to take a year off for one reason or another--pregnancy, illness, car accident, anything--he/she is considered a drop out.

If the student screws around during the freshmen year and takes an extra year to get out of high school, he/she is considered a drop out.

Public high schools are ruled ineffective on a daily basis by people who believe that they know what is best. Many of these people have never stepped in front of a classroom. In fact, Bill Gates even weighed in recently on how public schools should pay teachers. (FYI, it wasn't favorable for teachers.) Everyone believes that he/she knows what is best when it comes to educating children. None of these people have stood front of the classroom.

The sad fact of the matter is, there are kids who aren't cut out for the public classroom. For some reason or another, the four walls and desks don't mesh with some students' personalities. These students need an alternative form of education. These students may need to learn a trade in order to contribute to society. We want to believe that no child will be left behind, but the fact is that every child on this earth is special and unique. As a classroom teacher, it is my job to reach them all. All 150 of them that I may teach in any given year.

Where are the educators running education? Too often, administrators spend very little time in the classroom in their rush to get to the top. Elected education officials often have NO EXPERIENCE in public education at all. When they do, which is rare, it is typically less than ten years.

This Christmas, I wish for the pendulum to swing back the other way. I wish for teachers to once again join the highest echelon of respectability. I wish for people to understand that, while you get to check in to your nice cozy office, I get to teach in a coat for most of the day because the thermostat is turned low enough to save money. Understand that over the course of the day, I serve breakfast, clean up breakfast, mediate arguments, supply peppermints and tissues to sick children, dry the tears of broken hearted teenage girls, keep lunch detention for unruly boys who need attention, guard the halls against students looking for a place to hide out, discourage loitering, take cell phones, pull down hoods, and try to be engaging and entertaining. On really special days, I get to jump in the middle of actual fist fights.

All the while, people like Bill Gates get together and try to find reasons to pay me less.

For Christmas, I want us all to remember that none of us would be where we are today if it weren't for a teacher in the background, juggling all of her responsibilities and still finding time to tell us that we can do it. We can do anything we put our mind to.

Nearing the end of the first semester...

I have been a slack blogger. It's been since October 30th since I've blogged at all. I haven't been near as slack of a teacher as I have been a blogger.

At least I don't think that I have been.

We are nearing the end of first semester. Yay! Although I despise cold weather, I do love the Christmas break that inevitably comes along with it. It will be nice to sit at home for two weeks and NOT think about lesson plans or engagement or reading logs. And, it must be said, at this point, we all need a vacation from each other.

At this point last week, I could feel the thunder clouds growing over my head as soon as I got out of my car. I could feel by brow tense up. I've been wound so tight that I should go ahead and start saving for the botox that is going to be inevitable if Christmas break doesn't hurry up and get here.

Just when I think I'm going to spend my life in jail for murdering some innocent child that made me repeat myself for the upteenth time, something funny happens to remind me why I got into this biz in the first place.

Have you ever sat in a classroom with food and the teacher asked you if you had enough for everyone? Of course that means put it up, put it up now. But I'll think twice before I assume that I'll get what I want when I ask that question. This morning, the student picked up his bookbag, dug around, and pulled out a sucker for everyone.

Yes, he did have enough for everyone. And he was willing to share.

It's been 6 weeks, but I'm still alive!

I've had several thoughts recently about what I could post and talk about. But instead of posting my brilliance, I've kept it to myself. But today I sit, watching Carolina football, and thinking about the impacts of social networking on education.

I have to make a presentation Monday on new technologies that teachers can use to help increase student engagement. I've used Facebook myself--I have two pages for students and parents to use for communication and current event announcements. Now I'm venturing into Edmodo and Glogster, two sites that are very new to me. These sites have great potential for improving student engagement in our classrooms. We are moving away from pen and paper and getting students to interact with their knowledge through the use of authentic assessments.

So I'm expanding my repertoire and trying to take some of my colleagues along with me. More authentic assessments lead to more authentic learning, right?

Where were you when the world stopped turning?

Nine years ago, I was not in the same place as most of my fellow educators. I was at home. Sleeping.

You see, on September 10th, I spent most of the night in the emergency room.

Just as I was drifting off to sleep that evening, my house phone rang. It was late and I ignored it. My roommate did not and was soon banging on my door to get me to pick up. Some lady, whose name I will never remember, was on the phone asking for me. And then my sister got on the line. My hysterical sister. There had been an accident. A car accident. I had to get to Columbia College. Now.

This was Audrey's first year at CC and I didn't really know my way around that end of town. I called a friend and got vague directions and headed that way, only to be stopped at the end of the block by an officer. Apparently the wreck was so bad that the entire block was cordoned off. All passengers had been taken to Richland County Hospital. One more place for me to try to find.

Did you know that when they bring in victims of auto collisions, they don't automatically get their names entered in? They get trauma numbers. My parents were on their way (I had to call them immediately, of course), so I was in the waiting room by myself. With the family of the driver. So I waited. Alone. Not knowing anything except that this family's daughter had landed my baby sister in the hospital.

About the same time my parents arrived, the hospital figured out who Audrey was and we were able to go back to her. She was on a body board, with a neck brace, covered in dirt and twigs and broken glass. But she was alive.

There was a lot of sitting around that night. Lots of waiting. All three girls were basically okay, although one didn't have on her seatbelt and had a nice, long ICU visit. But all three eventually walked away. Audrey walked away around 3:30 or 4 that morning.

I only woke up to call in sick the next morning. I rolled over and attempted to sleep some more. The all-nighter in the emergency room was too much for me. And sleep was good until my phone started ringing again. And again and again. It rang until I picked it up and a friend told me to get to a TV. I was appalled and in shock at how such an accident could happen. I was sure it was an accident. Then the second plane connected and I knew this was no accident.

I wasn't with my kids on September 11th. I was glued to the TV wondering how something like this could happen. September 11th will always resonate within me--I'm an American, after all. But it will always be linked to that fateful night near Columbia College for me too. I can't think of 9/11 without thinking about what happened the night before.

A new school year! A new opportunity!

We have been back at school for 8 days. Eight whole days. Already I feel so much better than I did at this point last year. Last year, I was making the transition from coach to teacher. I was putting ideology into practice. I was coming off of my mountain.

This year, I am so much more in control. I can see things falling into place like never before. It is like I've embedded all the things I've learned and I've made them my own.

I can not believe the new place that I'm in. I actually planned lessons this weekend. :)

This week, we are going to use "The Necklace" to cover some basic English I standards that will later be reinforced by Bronx Masquerade. I am planning with my fellow English I teachers and we are piggy-backing better than ever before.

Needless to say, I am excited. I have great kids. I have great partner teachers. I have a great schedule. I work in a great school. I still have a job.

And every day, I get to wake up and teach children. I love them more than they could ever imagine. I know that I am molding and shaping them into something new everyday. They will look back on their high school experience and remember me. Their ninth grade English teacher.

People ask me how I can get up so early in the mornings. They ask me how I deal with 14-year-olds. They ask me how I work in education. The rewards are intrinsic. And they are never-ending. I'm so proud to say that I am a teacher. With all that that entails.

Still need a book...

I went from reading several things at once to reading nothing. NOTHING. I am in a reading funk and it's making me spend hours and hours on the Internet doing nothing. Except reading tweets and news articles and other stuff.

I realize that that is reading, but I need a book.

I read a great espionage novel by Steve Berry earlier in the summer and I read/edited the novel my uncle wrote. I also read a great low country novel on sweetgrass baskets. Other than that, my summer has been replete with technology but shockingly void of good reads.

As summer comes to an end for me, I am in need of some good reads to take to the mountains with me. There's nothing better than the cool mountain air and a good read in a rocking chair.

I need a book. Stat.

Promoting Professional Advocacy amongst Educators

I was met with a disturbing comment from a colleague this year.

Let me set this up properly. My state is undergoing serious budget cuts this year, as I'm sure others are as well. This lead to me getting hot and heavy with some e-mail accounts. I sent several e-mails to the local senator and representative, as well as those for whom I am a constituent. I also sent out the links to all faculty members. My e-mails were pretty informative--a link to the e-mail forms, key items up for debate that week, and some talking points to use. Doesn't get any easier than that, does it?

I had good response from several teachers. Lots of "thank you!" and "I e-mailed today!"

This is what we need to do. We need to remind these politicians that we vote and we matter. What we do everyday affects kids, which affects this state's future economy. We want this economy to turn around? Whose shoulders do you think our future rest on?

Now to the disturbing part. In conversation with a few colleagues, the e-mail campaign came up, to which the youngest in our group responded that she hadn't sent any e-mails. What was the point? She just didn't do stuff like that.

How can you NOT do stuff "like that?" We voted for these people. They change platforms and loyalties like the rest of us change underwear. It is our responsibility to remind them who they work for. We can't just turn them loose and hope for the best!

So how do we encourage teachers to take the extra five minutes it takes to be politically active? How do we convince them that their five minutes are worth it? That's what I'm working on with my new committee members. As a part of CERRA's advisory board, we want to make advocacy as simply as possible.

Input is most definitely welcome.

One last, lazy day (Hey! Alliteration!)

I'm enjoying what will be my last weekday on the couch with the dog and the DVR. Tomorrow, it is back to work.

Tomorrow, I have to start thinking about SGA (and possibly kicking myself for agreeing to take it). I head to Newberry to meet with the student body president about registration and then pick up the notebooks, aka instruction manuals, from the outgoing sponsor.

Tomorrow, I have to do a two hour driving lesson for a friend's son. It will be an exciting trip down to Newberry to run the road test and back.

Tomorrow, I will have to get up and shower and get dressed and wear shoes.

Tomorrow, I will have to eat breakfast on a schedule and not whenever I want to.

Friday, I have an 8 a.m. tee time and then scheduled pool time.

But, tomorrow, I'll feel the pressure that starts as summer ends.