How do you get your music?
Well, here it is, the last blog of the semester. Coming up with blog ideas has been a challenge within itself. Sometimes articles jumped out at me and sometimes I had to search long and hard to come up with something I wanted to blog about. I have enjoyed reading all of my classmates’ blogs over the past 16 weeks. Being able to share ideas and ‘discuss’ them with classmates/colleagues as been a valuable, albeit time consuming part of this class. I have gained an understanding of the many ways blogs can be utilized in and out of the classroom. Hopefully when I return to the classroom I will be able to incorporate some of these ideas.
Now, without any further adieu, here is my last blog.
In one of my other graduate courses, I read a research paper about copyright issues. Being a music teacher, I quite often find myself at a crossroads of infringing on copyright laws in one way or another. In this paper, a music teacher found it quite disturbing how little students knew about copyright laws or what little respect people had for them. The students actually thought that copyright meant that they had a right to copy music. Students think that just because they have a cd burner, they have the right to copy music and do what they want with it. This line of thinking is what got a student from Boston University in deep doo doo.
Have you ever downloaded a song off the internet from Kazaa, Limewire, or Napster or any other music sharing site? Did you think twice about the legality of doing so? The premise of these sites was that you would just share the music you legally obtained (bought) with millions of other people via the internet. It soon became a process of other people just ‘ripping’ tracks any time from anyone. This is where the music industry has the problem. This is what got Joel Tenenbaum from Providence, Rhode Island in such hot water. In fact, according to this article he has been ordered to pay four recording labels a total of $675,000 in damages, To me, that is just a ludicrous amount for the ‘crime’ he committed. He is expected to pay $22,500 for each song he illegally obtained. That is crazy. How did this student get singled out and prosecuted. I would imagine every student in my school could potentially face the same charges as this guy did. I see the kids walking around with their I-pods loaded with thousands of songs. I don’t suppose they paid for each and every one of them. According to the law, that is not legal. But, how does that differ from the days of yore, where you let somebody borrow your records, cassettes, 8-tracks or CD’s. (Some of you probably don’t even know what records, cassettes or 8-tracks are. I once had a student ask me if records are those ‘really big CDs). Anyway, the threat of getting into random trouble like Mr. Tenenbaum has is enough to keep me from ‘ripping’ any music from any site. I definitely subscribe to i-tunes now and pay the low fee for any songs I want.
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Blog 15
What can you sing at your school Christmas/Winter Program?
At this time every year as a music teacher, I struggle with finding appropriate music to put on the winter concert that is held in December. I am still able to call it the Christmas program. I always have been able to. I am lucky, because I don’t have to be so careful with the music I pick out. I can put any sort of songs on the program regardless of religious content or not. I try to mix it up. I usually put secular holiday songs as well as religious Christmas songs together on a program. I have never had any issues from students, parents, administrators or community. In fact I can remember one year I had the elementary students perform a little ‘musical’ about Santa and his goings on in Branson Missouri. I was asked by a pastor’s wife if I could incorporate things about the birth of Christ into this little musical to benefit her kids as well as all the others. This was such an unconventional request. It is usually the other way around, where you are not allowed to use anything related to Christ or religion in any sort of public school performance. We are a very small, close knit community and I don’t think it would ever be an issue if I used religious music for my concerts. But I suppose I should be prepared if it ever becomes a problem just like it has for a school in New Jersey. I found this article quite interesting because the courts upheld the decision to not allow religious music in winter concerts. The schools involved even went so far as to list what holiday songs they deem appropriate and what songs have religious overtones and should not be used. But, the kicker is that the same school, the same music kids, the same teachers are allowed to use these same disallowed public performance songs in the regular curriculum as learning devices. What? Doesn’t that seem quite contradictory? The basis of choral music is religious and I think it is an absolute shame to remove some of the best music just because it comes from the religious side. I found it interesting that this article also said the school has used songs such as "Waters of Babylon (psalm 137)," "Jubilate," and "Agnus Dei/Cum Sanctis" even after 2004 when the complaints had been made. Why are these songs okay, but not “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” or “Silent Night”? My theory is that the aforementioned songs are Latin and the complainants probably don’t know what they mean. That sure sounds cynical doesn’t it?
What is your public school allowed to do? How do you feel about it? Hope you are enjoying the holiday music that is playing everywhere your ear can reach these days whether it is secular or sacred!
At this time every year as a music teacher, I struggle with finding appropriate music to put on the winter concert that is held in December. I am still able to call it the Christmas program. I always have been able to. I am lucky, because I don’t have to be so careful with the music I pick out. I can put any sort of songs on the program regardless of religious content or not. I try to mix it up. I usually put secular holiday songs as well as religious Christmas songs together on a program. I have never had any issues from students, parents, administrators or community. In fact I can remember one year I had the elementary students perform a little ‘musical’ about Santa and his goings on in Branson Missouri. I was asked by a pastor’s wife if I could incorporate things about the birth of Christ into this little musical to benefit her kids as well as all the others. This was such an unconventional request. It is usually the other way around, where you are not allowed to use anything related to Christ or religion in any sort of public school performance. We are a very small, close knit community and I don’t think it would ever be an issue if I used religious music for my concerts. But I suppose I should be prepared if it ever becomes a problem just like it has for a school in New Jersey. I found this article quite interesting because the courts upheld the decision to not allow religious music in winter concerts. The schools involved even went so far as to list what holiday songs they deem appropriate and what songs have religious overtones and should not be used. But, the kicker is that the same school, the same music kids, the same teachers are allowed to use these same disallowed public performance songs in the regular curriculum as learning devices. What? Doesn’t that seem quite contradictory? The basis of choral music is religious and I think it is an absolute shame to remove some of the best music just because it comes from the religious side. I found it interesting that this article also said the school has used songs such as "Waters of Babylon (psalm 137)," "Jubilate," and "Agnus Dei/Cum Sanctis" even after 2004 when the complaints had been made. Why are these songs okay, but not “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” or “Silent Night”? My theory is that the aforementioned songs are Latin and the complainants probably don’t know what they mean. That sure sounds cynical doesn’t it?
What is your public school allowed to do? How do you feel about it? Hope you are enjoying the holiday music that is playing everywhere your ear can reach these days whether it is secular or sacred!
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Blog 14
Master’s Degree = No Salary Increase. Is it worth it?
We are home safe and sound after the birth of our precious baby boy. Everyone is adjusting to life with a baby in the house again. All is well!
This is so NOT what I needed to be reading right now. There is an urge to halt paying extra salary to teachers who earn an advanced degree in education and teaching. The reason being is that there is no correlation between a teacher getting an advance degree and student achievement improvement. In fact , in the article “Halt Urged to Paying Teachers For Earning Master's Degrees” by Stephen Sawchuk, Raegen Miller states that it is known that the relationship between the advanced degree and student achievement is NON-existent. It is thought that funding for compensation policies that are tied to improvement in student achievement would be a better use of money.
This is very upsetting to me. One of the main reasons I decided to earn my masters degree was for the pay increase. Our school recently added a master’s lane to our salary schedule. I was non-renewed as a music teacher at my school for the present school year. I was offered my same job back, just at a 60% load/pay. I thought I would get my masters degree to help alleviate the loss of income from the down sizing move made by my school. Surprisingly, our school is one of a very few around the area that even have a master’s lane in the salary schedule.
I don’t really understand this movement. What other profession would discourage advance education to improve employee job performance. I just can’t think of any. It really seems so counter- productive. We as teachers are always required to maintain our licensure by taking professional development classes. If you read the first paragraph in my link for professional development it gives a great definition of what PD should be and why it is important. We need so many of these credits each year to uphold our license. I don’t know about you, but the classes I have taken for professional development reasons tend to be fluff or worthless in reality. Usually, for me, the classes have nothing to do with my discipline. I just pick one that is offered and hope for the best. Wouldn’t it be a much better idea to have legitimate, serious education in the form of a master’s degree to improve our teaching profession? For years I had no interest in advancing my education as a teacher simply because there was no monetary reward for it. It was as if my school actually frowned upon teachers getting them. After a very bold move on behalf of the school board, a master’s schedule was added to our salary schedule. Only then did I entertain the idea of an advance degree. But it seems like we are back to square one if this idea of no pay for advance degree catches on. That would be a shame, to say the least. What do you think?
We are home safe and sound after the birth of our precious baby boy. Everyone is adjusting to life with a baby in the house again. All is well!
This is so NOT what I needed to be reading right now. There is an urge to halt paying extra salary to teachers who earn an advanced degree in education and teaching. The reason being is that there is no correlation between a teacher getting an advance degree and student achievement improvement. In fact , in the article “Halt Urged to Paying Teachers For Earning Master's Degrees” by Stephen Sawchuk, Raegen Miller states that it is known that the relationship between the advanced degree and student achievement is NON-existent. It is thought that funding for compensation policies that are tied to improvement in student achievement would be a better use of money.
This is very upsetting to me. One of the main reasons I decided to earn my masters degree was for the pay increase. Our school recently added a master’s lane to our salary schedule. I was non-renewed as a music teacher at my school for the present school year. I was offered my same job back, just at a 60% load/pay. I thought I would get my masters degree to help alleviate the loss of income from the down sizing move made by my school. Surprisingly, our school is one of a very few around the area that even have a master’s lane in the salary schedule.
I don’t really understand this movement. What other profession would discourage advance education to improve employee job performance. I just can’t think of any. It really seems so counter- productive. We as teachers are always required to maintain our licensure by taking professional development classes. If you read the first paragraph in my link for professional development it gives a great definition of what PD should be and why it is important. We need so many of these credits each year to uphold our license. I don’t know about you, but the classes I have taken for professional development reasons tend to be fluff or worthless in reality. Usually, for me, the classes have nothing to do with my discipline. I just pick one that is offered and hope for the best. Wouldn’t it be a much better idea to have legitimate, serious education in the form of a master’s degree to improve our teaching profession? For years I had no interest in advancing my education as a teacher simply because there was no monetary reward for it. It was as if my school actually frowned upon teachers getting them. After a very bold move on behalf of the school board, a master’s schedule was added to our salary schedule. Only then did I entertain the idea of an advance degree. But it seems like we are back to square one if this idea of no pay for advance degree catches on. That would be a shame, to say the least. What do you think?
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Blog 13
Learning Through Music; Practical Suggestions for the Elementary Teacher
Music is such an important part of most people’s lives. It is so much a part of it that we probably don’t even realize the extent to which it impacts us. Have you ever thought about all the places you hear music and why you hear music? There is music everywhere you go. I was so tickled when I found this article that I had to use it for my next blog. I was hoping to find something about maternity leave, but try as I might, I couldn’t find anything. As you are reading this I am in the hospital having my 2nd child. So I thought it would be interesting to do some research on maternity leave policies in schools. I am on a sabbatical this school year so I don’t have to worry about taking time of for the birth of my child, but with my first child I was so disgusted with my schools’ leave policy. But, I digress. No need to get into that now that I found an even better, less aggravating topic!
The article “Learning through Music; Practical Suggestions for the Elementary Teacher” brings up how easy it is to incorporate music into a plethora of lesson plans, and rather simply at that. It doesn’t take much to create a little ditty to help remember some facts from a lesson. It always seems like in my music classes I am thinking of ways to cross curriculum via my lessons. Now it is time for other disciplines to cross curriculum with music. As I was looking for articles about this I came across this awesome video. You just have to take the time to view it. It is two guys that have taken valuable content from lessons and put it to rap. As they claim, it is a form of the SchoolHouse Rock of old, with a new hip hop twist.
Tina Jordan, the author of the article came up with a list of 5 ways to help non-music teachers incorporate music into ‘regular’ lessons.
1. Music as Transition/Classroom Management – In tradition of the “clean up” song in pre-school, music can signal students to attend to a task in a specific time frame. With Yakity Yak Don’t Talk Back, students are enthusiastic while they “pick up the papers and the trash” before transitioning to the next subject or leaving for the day. Using age appropriate songs, students of all ages can listen to musical cues to follow procedures in much the same way.
2. Music to Calm and Attend– Music can soothe, stimulate, or excite the students in your classroom to attend to learning. Soft background instrumentals can calm students as they enter the learning environment after recess or as they come excited for the morning routine. Using Good Day Sunshine by the Beatles, for instance, could energize and motivate students who are lagging and need an extra “oomph” to start their day.
3. Music to Build Community – Songs can create a since of cohesiveness and cooperation through a shared love of music. Brooke Cherry, a third grade teacher, challenged her students to nominate and vote on a theme song for their class. They overwhelmingly chose We are the Champions to help motivate and encourage each other during their first experience with the state assessment and the rigorous curriculum they felt they would experience that year. She used their song to enhance her writing curriculum as her students wrote about, defined, and described qualities of a champion. As they shared these personal perspectives with each other, they devised a class pledge to remind them to strive toward their shared set of goals.
4. Music to Enhance Creativity- Music unlocks a plethora of creativity and inspiration to students. For example, Betty Smith, a first grade teacher, uses the song What a Wonderful World by Louis Armstrong to arouse her first graders to think how they would imagine a “wonderful world.” Each of her students was given lines of the song to mentally visualize and then illustrate its beautiful theme through art. Fellow teachers, parents and colleagues were impressed with the complexity of their thinking as they show-cased their creativity and their interpretation of the song’s message. She even used different versions of the song to demonstrate how different artists could produce a different image and meaning to the lyrics simply by using different rhythms and vocal styles. With the depth of thinking in this activity, Mrs. Smith reached every level of Bloom's Taxonomy. Powerful indeed!
5. Music to Support ESL Learners- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow once said, “Music is the universal language of mankind.” Using music bridges the culture gap in the classroom. Regardless of race, religion, or language all enjoy and can relate through music. Holly Zalenski, an ESL teacher, used Christmas Carols of different regions to introduce vocabulary and American culture. Using the Christmas carols also enhanced her reading instruction as the students searched for the main idea, or “the gist” as she called it, of the song’s printed lyrics. Students repeatedly used the printed lyrics to allow students the time to work on reading fluency effectively. Ms. Zalenski confirmed, “Music was our common thread when the spoken word often becomes lost in translation.”
Here are just a few ways that I have seen my fellow teachers use music to help their lessons:
My Kindergarten, First and Second graders came into music class one day with a song to teach me. They had been studying the planets in our solar system and they had a catchy tune to learn and remember the names of the planets. They were so excited to sing it for me. This was at the time Pluto was demoted as a planet. So for our spring concert we sang their planet song and a song I had already planned on doing about the plight of Pluto.
Who can forget “Fifty Nifty United States” It is the song that lists, in alphabetical order, the names of all the United States. As a music teacher I have gotten a lot of mileage out of this one.
You don’t even have to be good at music to incorporate it into your classes. Trust me, I AM a music teacher and little kids absolutely don’t care what you sound like. They just love to sing and use music. If you have any ways you have found fun and innovative to use music in your classroom feel free to share!
Reference
Jordan, T. (2009, July 30). Learning through music; practical suggestions for the elementary teacher. Retrieved from http://www.edarticle.com/k-12-subject-areas/the-arts/learning-through-music%3B-practical-suggestions-for-the-elementary-teacher.html on November 14, 2009
Music is such an important part of most people’s lives. It is so much a part of it that we probably don’t even realize the extent to which it impacts us. Have you ever thought about all the places you hear music and why you hear music? There is music everywhere you go. I was so tickled when I found this article that I had to use it for my next blog. I was hoping to find something about maternity leave, but try as I might, I couldn’t find anything. As you are reading this I am in the hospital having my 2nd child. So I thought it would be interesting to do some research on maternity leave policies in schools. I am on a sabbatical this school year so I don’t have to worry about taking time of for the birth of my child, but with my first child I was so disgusted with my schools’ leave policy. But, I digress. No need to get into that now that I found an even better, less aggravating topic!
The article “Learning through Music; Practical Suggestions for the Elementary Teacher” brings up how easy it is to incorporate music into a plethora of lesson plans, and rather simply at that. It doesn’t take much to create a little ditty to help remember some facts from a lesson. It always seems like in my music classes I am thinking of ways to cross curriculum via my lessons. Now it is time for other disciplines to cross curriculum with music. As I was looking for articles about this I came across this awesome video. You just have to take the time to view it. It is two guys that have taken valuable content from lessons and put it to rap. As they claim, it is a form of the SchoolHouse Rock of old, with a new hip hop twist.
Tina Jordan, the author of the article came up with a list of 5 ways to help non-music teachers incorporate music into ‘regular’ lessons.
1. Music as Transition/Classroom Management – In tradition of the “clean up” song in pre-school, music can signal students to attend to a task in a specific time frame. With Yakity Yak Don’t Talk Back, students are enthusiastic while they “pick up the papers and the trash” before transitioning to the next subject or leaving for the day. Using age appropriate songs, students of all ages can listen to musical cues to follow procedures in much the same way.
2. Music to Calm and Attend– Music can soothe, stimulate, or excite the students in your classroom to attend to learning. Soft background instrumentals can calm students as they enter the learning environment after recess or as they come excited for the morning routine. Using Good Day Sunshine by the Beatles, for instance, could energize and motivate students who are lagging and need an extra “oomph” to start their day.
3. Music to Build Community – Songs can create a since of cohesiveness and cooperation through a shared love of music. Brooke Cherry, a third grade teacher, challenged her students to nominate and vote on a theme song for their class. They overwhelmingly chose We are the Champions to help motivate and encourage each other during their first experience with the state assessment and the rigorous curriculum they felt they would experience that year. She used their song to enhance her writing curriculum as her students wrote about, defined, and described qualities of a champion. As they shared these personal perspectives with each other, they devised a class pledge to remind them to strive toward their shared set of goals.
4. Music to Enhance Creativity- Music unlocks a plethora of creativity and inspiration to students. For example, Betty Smith, a first grade teacher, uses the song What a Wonderful World by Louis Armstrong to arouse her first graders to think how they would imagine a “wonderful world.” Each of her students was given lines of the song to mentally visualize and then illustrate its beautiful theme through art. Fellow teachers, parents and colleagues were impressed with the complexity of their thinking as they show-cased their creativity and their interpretation of the song’s message. She even used different versions of the song to demonstrate how different artists could produce a different image and meaning to the lyrics simply by using different rhythms and vocal styles. With the depth of thinking in this activity, Mrs. Smith reached every level of Bloom's Taxonomy. Powerful indeed!
5. Music to Support ESL Learners- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow once said, “Music is the universal language of mankind.” Using music bridges the culture gap in the classroom. Regardless of race, religion, or language all enjoy and can relate through music. Holly Zalenski, an ESL teacher, used Christmas Carols of different regions to introduce vocabulary and American culture. Using the Christmas carols also enhanced her reading instruction as the students searched for the main idea, or “the gist” as she called it, of the song’s printed lyrics. Students repeatedly used the printed lyrics to allow students the time to work on reading fluency effectively. Ms. Zalenski confirmed, “Music was our common thread when the spoken word often becomes lost in translation.”
Here are just a few ways that I have seen my fellow teachers use music to help their lessons:
My Kindergarten, First and Second graders came into music class one day with a song to teach me. They had been studying the planets in our solar system and they had a catchy tune to learn and remember the names of the planets. They were so excited to sing it for me. This was at the time Pluto was demoted as a planet. So for our spring concert we sang their planet song and a song I had already planned on doing about the plight of Pluto.
Who can forget “Fifty Nifty United States” It is the song that lists, in alphabetical order, the names of all the United States. As a music teacher I have gotten a lot of mileage out of this one.
You don’t even have to be good at music to incorporate it into your classes. Trust me, I AM a music teacher and little kids absolutely don’t care what you sound like. They just love to sing and use music. If you have any ways you have found fun and innovative to use music in your classroom feel free to share!
Reference
Jordan, T. (2009, July 30). Learning through music; practical suggestions for the elementary teacher. Retrieved from http://www.edarticle.com/k-12-subject-areas/the-arts/learning-through-music%3B-practical-suggestions-for-the-elementary-teacher.html on November 14, 2009
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Blog 12
Those who teach, don’t need to talk
What do you do when you have laryngitis but don’t really feel sick? It is kind of hard to go to school and teach a classroom full of rambunctious kids with no voice. Well, now you don’t have to call in sick. Heather Wolpert-Gawron wrote a great little article about what to do when you don’t have a voice in the classroom. I thought her ideas of what to do while on “mute” were very relevant since we have been discussing classroom management ideas lately. Ms. Wolpert-Gawron met her students at the door and gave a list of three things she instructed her students to do even before they set foot in her class. She didn’t let on that she had no voice. The kids followed her instructions and as her story goes, it sounds like she had a very productive day with her students. At one point she used her computer hooked up to her LCD projector and spoke to her kids via the typing on screen. She even had a clever way to tell if her middle school kids were paying attention to what she was ‘saying’ on screen. She had them stick out their tongue when they completed reading the instructions. Ingenious!
The ideas that Ms. Wolpert-Gawron had are not actually new to me. I have done things like this when I have had no voice. As a music teacher you can feel totally lost without a voice! But as she did, I found great success in conducting class without speaking. It was actually kind of fun. You would be surprised at how attentive kids can be when you whisper, especially when they expect you to be loud and vocal. It has actually been one of my better classroom management tactics. The kids are so intent on listening to you that I suspect even more can be accomplished with the plans than with full voice. I have actually tried doing this on days when health and voice are working just fine. As with the teacher in the article, I have found charades to be an effective form of communication. I have found kids of all ages really get into this. Anything that resembles a game is always a hit. I hadn’t thought of it, but the use of the laptop and LCD projector is great too. I have a Promethean board hooked up to my laptop in my classroom. I will definitely be using this when I go ‘mute’ again. Clearly, you have to be totally prepared and organized to pull something like this off, but it is a great experiment in classroom management.
The author of this article teaches language arts, speech and debate, but as I have said, I have done things like this in the music room. Give it a try! Awhile back we had a discussion question that asked to give our favorite quote. The last paragraph of this article will give you some very insightful words of advice that you could hold in your important quote repertoire.
“Teaching doesn’t require volume. Classroom management doesn’t require yelling. Being in control is about humor, it’s about having your antennae up, and it’s about being creative enough to make every moment valuable.”
What do you do when you have laryngitis but don’t really feel sick? It is kind of hard to go to school and teach a classroom full of rambunctious kids with no voice. Well, now you don’t have to call in sick. Heather Wolpert-Gawron wrote a great little article about what to do when you don’t have a voice in the classroom. I thought her ideas of what to do while on “mute” were very relevant since we have been discussing classroom management ideas lately. Ms. Wolpert-Gawron met her students at the door and gave a list of three things she instructed her students to do even before they set foot in her class. She didn’t let on that she had no voice. The kids followed her instructions and as her story goes, it sounds like she had a very productive day with her students. At one point she used her computer hooked up to her LCD projector and spoke to her kids via the typing on screen. She even had a clever way to tell if her middle school kids were paying attention to what she was ‘saying’ on screen. She had them stick out their tongue when they completed reading the instructions. Ingenious!
The ideas that Ms. Wolpert-Gawron had are not actually new to me. I have done things like this when I have had no voice. As a music teacher you can feel totally lost without a voice! But as she did, I found great success in conducting class without speaking. It was actually kind of fun. You would be surprised at how attentive kids can be when you whisper, especially when they expect you to be loud and vocal. It has actually been one of my better classroom management tactics. The kids are so intent on listening to you that I suspect even more can be accomplished with the plans than with full voice. I have actually tried doing this on days when health and voice are working just fine. As with the teacher in the article, I have found charades to be an effective form of communication. I have found kids of all ages really get into this. Anything that resembles a game is always a hit. I hadn’t thought of it, but the use of the laptop and LCD projector is great too. I have a Promethean board hooked up to my laptop in my classroom. I will definitely be using this when I go ‘mute’ again. Clearly, you have to be totally prepared and organized to pull something like this off, but it is a great experiment in classroom management.
The author of this article teaches language arts, speech and debate, but as I have said, I have done things like this in the music room. Give it a try! Awhile back we had a discussion question that asked to give our favorite quote. The last paragraph of this article will give you some very insightful words of advice that you could hold in your important quote repertoire.
“Teaching doesn’t require volume. Classroom management doesn’t require yelling. Being in control is about humor, it’s about having your antennae up, and it’s about being creative enough to make every moment valuable.”
Reference
Wolpert-Gawron, H. (2009, November 04). Those who teach, don't need to talk. Teacher Magazine, Retrieved from http://www.edweek.org/tm/articles/2009/11/04/wolpert_gawron_tln.html?tkn=UUQFEyGplyAc5T7u8g636kEKm/79slI9UVYT on November 09, 2009
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Blog 11
How do you grade? Subjectively vs. Objectively
I found this article headline to be intriguing. Grading is always a hot topic and subjective grading is even more juicy. This article brings up some interesting points. I agree with the article that there certainly needs to be consistency when it comes to grading. I don’t know if that will ever be obtainable though, because there are so many different types of classes that all require different types of grading practices. I was rather dismayed by the results of the experiment a grading expert performed with 10,000 educators from the US, Canada, Australia and South America. They were given a set of 10 scores and asked to determine a semester final grade. Results netted grades across the whole gamut from A to F. That does seems a little inconsistent.
How do you grade? Why do you grade? Have you ever wondered if there might be a better way? Are all your grades based on objective material? I find it very difficult to grade in my discipline of music. Things are quite subjective when grading a performance based class like band or choir. I generally grade things like participation and attitude more than I would grade ability and accuracy. In my situation, I am desperate to keep kids in my music classes because of small school enrollment. So, I am more likely to hand out A’s and B’s just to keep the numbers higher in my class. A student is going to take band because they ‘know’ they are going to get an easy A more likely than if they think they are going to have to work for a grade or earn one. It is a sad reality, but it is what it is in a small school.
To help me combat grading confusion I am now the proud user of rubrics. I have spent many hours developing my own rubrics for my performance based classes. I spent many years trying to explain why Little Johnny got the grade he did when Little Susie got a higher grade. It just really gave me a great tool for justification and explanation. I am still grading the same way I always have, I just now have it written out in a neat little plan which people are more likely to accept than just my word. I still feel the same way about needing to keep kids in music classes to be able to have a band, but now, kids seem to accept having to earn their grade when they know what they are working for.
The LA Times article refers to the total transformation of the Grand Island Public Schools grading systems. It lists some of the highlights of the transformation. I am not sure I agree with them. It is worth checking out the link to the Grand Island schools to see their whole explanation of their overhaul.
I did really get a kick out of the last sentence of the LA Times article. “Giving kids no credit for not turning in work or flunking them in some other way defeats the purpose, he said. A better result would be to force them to do the work, before school, during recess or after school.” This statement is coming from a grading expert? Have you ever tried to force a student to do anything? Good luck with that. That just screams trouble to me.
I found this article headline to be intriguing. Grading is always a hot topic and subjective grading is even more juicy. This article brings up some interesting points. I agree with the article that there certainly needs to be consistency when it comes to grading. I don’t know if that will ever be obtainable though, because there are so many different types of classes that all require different types of grading practices. I was rather dismayed by the results of the experiment a grading expert performed with 10,000 educators from the US, Canada, Australia and South America. They were given a set of 10 scores and asked to determine a semester final grade. Results netted grades across the whole gamut from A to F. That does seems a little inconsistent.
How do you grade? Why do you grade? Have you ever wondered if there might be a better way? Are all your grades based on objective material? I find it very difficult to grade in my discipline of music. Things are quite subjective when grading a performance based class like band or choir. I generally grade things like participation and attitude more than I would grade ability and accuracy. In my situation, I am desperate to keep kids in my music classes because of small school enrollment. So, I am more likely to hand out A’s and B’s just to keep the numbers higher in my class. A student is going to take band because they ‘know’ they are going to get an easy A more likely than if they think they are going to have to work for a grade or earn one. It is a sad reality, but it is what it is in a small school.
To help me combat grading confusion I am now the proud user of rubrics. I have spent many hours developing my own rubrics for my performance based classes. I spent many years trying to explain why Little Johnny got the grade he did when Little Susie got a higher grade. It just really gave me a great tool for justification and explanation. I am still grading the same way I always have, I just now have it written out in a neat little plan which people are more likely to accept than just my word. I still feel the same way about needing to keep kids in music classes to be able to have a band, but now, kids seem to accept having to earn their grade when they know what they are working for.
The LA Times article refers to the total transformation of the Grand Island Public Schools grading systems. It lists some of the highlights of the transformation. I am not sure I agree with them. It is worth checking out the link to the Grand Island schools to see their whole explanation of their overhaul.
I did really get a kick out of the last sentence of the LA Times article. “Giving kids no credit for not turning in work or flunking them in some other way defeats the purpose, he said. A better result would be to force them to do the work, before school, during recess or after school.” This statement is coming from a grading expert? Have you ever tried to force a student to do anything? Good luck with that. That just screams trouble to me.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Being Falsely Accused as a Teacher
Have you ever been in a situation of being accused of a wrong doing by a student? Have you ever worried about repercussions of disciplining a vindictive student? Have you ever been under investigation by Child Protective Services because of something that was reported that occurred in your classroom? Have you ever seen your career and possibly your life flash before your eyes because you know you have been falsely accused of some form of abuse by a student and their family? If you can answer yes to any of the previous questions, you will be empathetic to the teachers and their stories in this video from Video On Demand/ABC News. If you can’t answer yes to any of the previous questions consider yourself lucky and watch in dismay as these teachers endured horrible circumstances because they were accused of something and could do nothing against public scrutiny to prove themselves innocent. It made my skin crawl after watching the video because the statistics show that music teachers are most likely to be involved in an ordeal like this because of the nature of their work. I am a music teacher and can totally relate to that statement.
There are many different ways a teacher can find themselves in ‘hot water’. Students claim sexual abuse, physical abuse and emotional abuse just to name a few. The minute the accusations fly the teacher is automatically presumed guilty. Just like the beginning of the ABC video indicated, there is now a heightened awareness of these offenses and swift action is taken to fix the problem. In the case of Albert Thompson, the substitute from Chicago, he subbed in a classroom for one day. When he woke the next morning he was the headline on the news. Kids reported he fondled them. He hadn’t even been notified by authorities and the school was calling in counselors to help kids that had been traumatized. What happened to innocent until proven guilty? It turns out he was innocent. Thanks to careful police work, it was discovered that a 4th grade student was upset about being disciplined so she bribed her classmates with a dollar if they would make up stories to get the sub in trouble. The charges were dropped in a short time, but how do you recover from that? You never do. Trust me, I know. I was in this very same boat. I went through a CPS investigation. I had no support from administration, and my union rep told me to just apologize to the family and all would go away. Thank goodness for scrupulous investigating by the CPS rep (she was the one I feared the most and she turned out to be my biggest ally). She deemed the accusations to be invalid and all was dismissed. I was lucky, no real lasting implications, except in my own private hell.
If you Google or Dogpile these three words: Falsely Accused Teachers, you will find endless articles of the plight of wrongly accused teachers. It is simply heartbreaking. It is hard enough as it is to be a teacher, let alone have to worry on a daily basis about what a student could go home and make up about you. What ever happened to just being a teacher?
Have you ever been in a situation of being accused of a wrong doing by a student? Have you ever worried about repercussions of disciplining a vindictive student? Have you ever been under investigation by Child Protective Services because of something that was reported that occurred in your classroom? Have you ever seen your career and possibly your life flash before your eyes because you know you have been falsely accused of some form of abuse by a student and their family? If you can answer yes to any of the previous questions, you will be empathetic to the teachers and their stories in this video from Video On Demand/ABC News. If you can’t answer yes to any of the previous questions consider yourself lucky and watch in dismay as these teachers endured horrible circumstances because they were accused of something and could do nothing against public scrutiny to prove themselves innocent. It made my skin crawl after watching the video because the statistics show that music teachers are most likely to be involved in an ordeal like this because of the nature of their work. I am a music teacher and can totally relate to that statement.
There are many different ways a teacher can find themselves in ‘hot water’. Students claim sexual abuse, physical abuse and emotional abuse just to name a few. The minute the accusations fly the teacher is automatically presumed guilty. Just like the beginning of the ABC video indicated, there is now a heightened awareness of these offenses and swift action is taken to fix the problem. In the case of Albert Thompson, the substitute from Chicago, he subbed in a classroom for one day. When he woke the next morning he was the headline on the news. Kids reported he fondled them. He hadn’t even been notified by authorities and the school was calling in counselors to help kids that had been traumatized. What happened to innocent until proven guilty? It turns out he was innocent. Thanks to careful police work, it was discovered that a 4th grade student was upset about being disciplined so she bribed her classmates with a dollar if they would make up stories to get the sub in trouble. The charges were dropped in a short time, but how do you recover from that? You never do. Trust me, I know. I was in this very same boat. I went through a CPS investigation. I had no support from administration, and my union rep told me to just apologize to the family and all would go away. Thank goodness for scrupulous investigating by the CPS rep (she was the one I feared the most and she turned out to be my biggest ally). She deemed the accusations to be invalid and all was dismissed. I was lucky, no real lasting implications, except in my own private hell.
If you Google or Dogpile these three words: Falsely Accused Teachers, you will find endless articles of the plight of wrongly accused teachers. It is simply heartbreaking. It is hard enough as it is to be a teacher, let alone have to worry on a daily basis about what a student could go home and make up about you. What ever happened to just being a teacher?
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Spanking common in Mississippi schools.
What? Is this really a headline from 2009? Yep, sure is. The article “Spanking common in Mississippi schools” tells how 72% of school districts in Mississippi have discipline policies that include corporal punishment, including spanking. I was just surprised by this article because I hadn’t thought corporal punishment was even around any more. It appears that 22 schools throughout the US deem it legal to use corporal punishment. I had absolutely no idea. I was really taken aback by the statistics of schools in Mississippi that had the highest reported incidents of corporal punishment during the school year of 2008-09. You can find a list of these schools and their numbers at the end of the headline article. Something else I found very disturbing was that students with disabilities are usually more apt to receive corporal punishment or spankings and paddling.
There are multiple reasons given for and against spanking and corporal punishment. After reading so much from each side, I guess I could say that I am definitely against using it in the school setting. Even though there is much argument, I don’t know how much I buy into the adverse effects it has on a kid. Although, I am sure it has some lasting impressions for those that have endured it. An adult who received a paddling when he was a child could not for the life of him remember why he got the paddling, but he just remembered that it taught him to loathe the teacher that inflicted the punishment. Did that accomplish what it set out to do? It has definitely sparked a heated personal conversation between my husband and me as well. My husband can vividly remember getting spankings when he was a kid. It was just the thing to back then. He thinks spanking is an acceptable form of discipline. I can remember teachers I have worked with tell of stories of when they used physical force to discipline an unruly student. One teacher tells of how he grabbed a kid by the shirt collar and lifted him off the ground and held him against a locker and put quite the fear into the student. He claims he never had trouble with that student again. For the most part my husband and I have differing views about this issue. But then again, my husband has never been in the classroom as a teacher. He has never been at the throes of Social Services because a student and family falsely accused him of mistreating their student. I have. It changes you. It has definitely swayed me into opposing any form of physical punishment or contact for that matter. What do you think?
What? Is this really a headline from 2009? Yep, sure is. The article “Spanking common in Mississippi schools” tells how 72% of school districts in Mississippi have discipline policies that include corporal punishment, including spanking. I was just surprised by this article because I hadn’t thought corporal punishment was even around any more. It appears that 22 schools throughout the US deem it legal to use corporal punishment. I had absolutely no idea. I was really taken aback by the statistics of schools in Mississippi that had the highest reported incidents of corporal punishment during the school year of 2008-09. You can find a list of these schools and their numbers at the end of the headline article. Something else I found very disturbing was that students with disabilities are usually more apt to receive corporal punishment or spankings and paddling.
There are multiple reasons given for and against spanking and corporal punishment. After reading so much from each side, I guess I could say that I am definitely against using it in the school setting. Even though there is much argument, I don’t know how much I buy into the adverse effects it has on a kid. Although, I am sure it has some lasting impressions for those that have endured it. An adult who received a paddling when he was a child could not for the life of him remember why he got the paddling, but he just remembered that it taught him to loathe the teacher that inflicted the punishment. Did that accomplish what it set out to do? It has definitely sparked a heated personal conversation between my husband and me as well. My husband can vividly remember getting spankings when he was a kid. It was just the thing to back then. He thinks spanking is an acceptable form of discipline. I can remember teachers I have worked with tell of stories of when they used physical force to discipline an unruly student. One teacher tells of how he grabbed a kid by the shirt collar and lifted him off the ground and held him against a locker and put quite the fear into the student. He claims he never had trouble with that student again. For the most part my husband and I have differing views about this issue. But then again, my husband has never been in the classroom as a teacher. He has never been at the throes of Social Services because a student and family falsely accused him of mistreating their student. I have. It changes you. It has definitely swayed me into opposing any form of physical punishment or contact for that matter. What do you think?
Thursday, October 15, 2009
McGyver Tools Getting Scouts of all Ages in Deep Trouble.
I hope you have all heard of McGyver. I was in love with this TV show back in the 1980’s and dare I say in love with McGyver himself! Who doesn’t joke about fixing anything broken with a gum wrapper, a paper clip, a blade of grass and a drop of cooking oil? Ahhhhh…. Enough reminiscing.
I was just appalled after reading the dramatic story of the violent student who brought a lethal weapon to school. That violent student was Zachary Christie and he is a 6 year old first grader. He is now facing a sentence of 45 days in the schools reform school because of his violation of the school’s zero tolerance weapons policy. His story and his fate have me wondering what was really meant by zero tolerance and has its use gone too far? This poor hapless first grader just wanted to show off his new Swiss army type camping tool. He is six. No prior history of misbehaving. He even wears a suit and tie to school because he loves being in school so much. How can such a harsh punishment fit this situation? I am curious. How big is the class of 1st graders in this districts reform school? The mother is home schooling Zachary until the matter gets cleared up. As a public school teacher, I am not and will never be a proponent of home schooling, except in a case like this. Can you imagine the long lasting implications this little boy would experience if he had to comply with this punishment? His first day in class might include a conversation like this: Hi, what did you do to land in here? Oh, you stabbed someone in a gang fight? Yeah me? I brought my cub scout silverware tool to school to show my friends. Wanna play?
Since I found this article and decided to blog about it, much of this story has unfolded. On Tuesday night, the day after the story broke the school board of the Christina school district in Delaware reversed their decision and allowed Zachary to return to school. They also decided to revise the zero tolerance policy.
This is not the only time a zero tolerance policy has affected the plight of unsuspecting students. Matthew Whalen was suspended for having a pocket knife locked away in his car in the school parking lot. His punishment has many more implications affecting his future than little Zachary’s did. He has high post-secondary education expectations that could crumble because of his punishment. The list of these instances goes on and on. It is not a new issue. I know in this day and age, safety has to be at the forefront of our schools intentions. But like anything else ever imaginable, one size does not fit all. A blanket tolerance policy can’t possibly be the answer. The repercussions these students face because of their unintentional actions due to a highly flawed zero tolerance policy is unfathomable. It is simply unjust. What is the answer? I don’t know. Any ideas?
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
A Crackdown on Bake Sales in City Schools
How can you not be interested in a headline like this! My first reaction was, of all the things there are to worry about they are cracking down on bake sales? Who hasn’t been part of a bake sale fund-raiser? They bring in a lot of money, at least in our school. The Dollars for Scholars organization at our school has cake walks at almost every basketball game to raise money. After every spring concert there is a bake sale and that too brings in a pile of money. So I just couldn’t imagine what the hub-bub was all about with this headline. Of course, it is about wellness policies.
Does your school have a wellness policy? I am not presently at a school, but the school I had been with developed one over the past few years. It was aimed at teaching students better nutrition habits and physical activities that promote a healthier life style. Now, I am sure you are saying this is not a very exciting, controversial topic, but I am getting to that. This got me thinking along the lines of what I spoke about last week with teacher dress codes. After reading a lot of student dress code issues, I thought it would be interesting to see if teachers are held to the same dress code ethics as students are. In the same respect, if a school has a health and wellness policy, should the teachers be expected to adhere to the same strict guide lines? When my school converted to the healthy lifestyle changes, among many other things, it meant no more soda/pop in the vending machines, only juices. This had a major impact on me personally. I am not a coffee drinker at school, but instead, my mojo is Diet Mountain Dew. I consider it the breakfast of champions. I was not able to get my ‘fix’ at the school pop machine any more. So, I brought my own. Contraban! Since the induction of the wellness policy our school underwent 2 different administrators. They both took a different stance about the participation teachers should have in the implementation of the policy. One took the stance that we as teachers should just be discrete about what we consume. The other said there had to be complete compliance towards the policy. We were told we could not have pop, candy, sweets and the like just like the kids. Coffee was still allowed though, no questions asked. So guess what I did. I acted like I was now a coffee drinker and put my Diet Dew in a covered coffee mug. What do you think? Was I insubordinate with ‘sneaking’ my pop? Should teachers be required to follow the same healthy guidelines that we require of our students through a wellness policy? And most importantly why is coffee okay, but not diet pop?
How can you not be interested in a headline like this! My first reaction was, of all the things there are to worry about they are cracking down on bake sales? Who hasn’t been part of a bake sale fund-raiser? They bring in a lot of money, at least in our school. The Dollars for Scholars organization at our school has cake walks at almost every basketball game to raise money. After every spring concert there is a bake sale and that too brings in a pile of money. So I just couldn’t imagine what the hub-bub was all about with this headline. Of course, it is about wellness policies.
Does your school have a wellness policy? I am not presently at a school, but the school I had been with developed one over the past few years. It was aimed at teaching students better nutrition habits and physical activities that promote a healthier life style. Now, I am sure you are saying this is not a very exciting, controversial topic, but I am getting to that. This got me thinking along the lines of what I spoke about last week with teacher dress codes. After reading a lot of student dress code issues, I thought it would be interesting to see if teachers are held to the same dress code ethics as students are. In the same respect, if a school has a health and wellness policy, should the teachers be expected to adhere to the same strict guide lines? When my school converted to the healthy lifestyle changes, among many other things, it meant no more soda/pop in the vending machines, only juices. This had a major impact on me personally. I am not a coffee drinker at school, but instead, my mojo is Diet Mountain Dew. I consider it the breakfast of champions. I was not able to get my ‘fix’ at the school pop machine any more. So, I brought my own. Contraban! Since the induction of the wellness policy our school underwent 2 different administrators. They both took a different stance about the participation teachers should have in the implementation of the policy. One took the stance that we as teachers should just be discrete about what we consume. The other said there had to be complete compliance towards the policy. We were told we could not have pop, candy, sweets and the like just like the kids. Coffee was still allowed though, no questions asked. So guess what I did. I acted like I was now a coffee drinker and put my Diet Dew in a covered coffee mug. What do you think? Was I insubordinate with ‘sneaking’ my pop? Should teachers be required to follow the same healthy guidelines that we require of our students through a wellness policy? And most importantly why is coffee okay, but not diet pop?
Thursday, October 1, 2009
To wear or Not to wear.....
After reading 2 blogs last week about student dress code, I got to thinking about teacher dress and how it has changed, and I don't think for the better.
I have been teaching in a public school for 17 years. All of those years have been in the same school. I have seen many changes take place over the years. When I began teaching my first year, I was still in college mode. I was still on the budget of a college graduate. I don’t recall putting a lot of thought into my clothing during that first year. It must have been obvious because I was taken into the principal’s office and told what not to wear. Now, don’t get me wrong. I wasn’t wearing anything risqué or vulgar. I was told that I wore too many sweatshirts and that I needed to wear more dresses and dress clothes. At first I was seriously offended. I didn’t think anything was wrong with what I was wearing. But, I followed orders. I spent the summer updating my wardrobe. The next school year, as I wore my new professional wardrobe, I felt different. I realized I matched the rest of the faculty. It wasn’t like the game where you pick out the one picture that doesn’t match anymore. I am here to attest that I began to be treated differently, by young and old alike. Although I protested at first, I became a fan of professional dress for teachers.
That was over a decade ago. Almost 2 decades, but I don’t want to make myself sound too old! We had a large group of teachers retire all in one year. So to replace them, a bunch of ‘newbie’s’ were hired. All of which had the same way of thinking I did when I started teaching. One of the problems about this is the principal, who is suppose to enforce professional dress, is a ‘newbie’ too. Our dress code has slid down that slippery slope for many years now. We have had teachers or aides wear completely inappropriate attire for the workplace, let alone the school. There were men wearing cargo shorts and ladies wearing tank tops with embarrassingly low cleavage. In my opinion it has drastically changed the demeanor of the school and the value that is placed on the teacher or school faculty. I don’t think it is appropriate to wonder who is the teacher and who is the student when 2 people are walking down the hall. There should be much more of a distinction. I am a firm believer that you need to dress for success. I don’t think it needs to go as far as a dress code for teachers. As the article stated, that could be a nightmare dealing with the union to even get that approved, but it should not have to be written in stone. It should just be a simple matter of good judgment and adult decision making.
What do you think?
Elizabeth Haraseth a.k.a. Id_rather_be_golfin
I have been teaching in a public school for 17 years. All of those years have been in the same school. I have seen many changes take place over the years. When I began teaching my first year, I was still in college mode. I was still on the budget of a college graduate. I don’t recall putting a lot of thought into my clothing during that first year. It must have been obvious because I was taken into the principal’s office and told what not to wear. Now, don’t get me wrong. I wasn’t wearing anything risqué or vulgar. I was told that I wore too many sweatshirts and that I needed to wear more dresses and dress clothes. At first I was seriously offended. I didn’t think anything was wrong with what I was wearing. But, I followed orders. I spent the summer updating my wardrobe. The next school year, as I wore my new professional wardrobe, I felt different. I realized I matched the rest of the faculty. It wasn’t like the game where you pick out the one picture that doesn’t match anymore. I am here to attest that I began to be treated differently, by young and old alike. Although I protested at first, I became a fan of professional dress for teachers.
That was over a decade ago. Almost 2 decades, but I don’t want to make myself sound too old! We had a large group of teachers retire all in one year. So to replace them, a bunch of ‘newbie’s’ were hired. All of which had the same way of thinking I did when I started teaching. One of the problems about this is the principal, who is suppose to enforce professional dress, is a ‘newbie’ too. Our dress code has slid down that slippery slope for many years now. We have had teachers or aides wear completely inappropriate attire for the workplace, let alone the school. There were men wearing cargo shorts and ladies wearing tank tops with embarrassingly low cleavage. In my opinion it has drastically changed the demeanor of the school and the value that is placed on the teacher or school faculty. I don’t think it is appropriate to wonder who is the teacher and who is the student when 2 people are walking down the hall. There should be much more of a distinction. I am a firm believer that you need to dress for success. I don’t think it needs to go as far as a dress code for teachers. As the article stated, that could be a nightmare dealing with the union to even get that approved, but it should not have to be written in stone. It should just be a simple matter of good judgment and adult decision making.
What do you think?
Elizabeth Haraseth a.k.a. Id_rather_be_golfin
Thursday, September 24, 2009
In Case of an Emergency
I thought I would continue my line of thinking from my last blog for two reasons. First, I was alarmed by the reply Tech Teach Booth wrote about. Her school had a drill and to make a long story short, it sounded like it caused hysteria and chaos. I teach in a very small school and really can’t imagine what a mess it probably was with a much bigger school. It is such a shame that the teachers and faculty were not more prepared and alerted to the drill process. I can’t imagine how the parents felt sitting in the parking lot wondering what was going on.
Secondly, I also recently read a letter sent out to all parents from my school. It was describing an alert system that they were going to be implementing starting this school year. The system is called Instant-Alert by Honeywell. This is a web-based emergency notification system that can send out any kind of message and reach a targeted audience in one fell swoop. I can’t help but think had Ms. Booth’s school had a system like this in place the chaos could have been completely avoided during her school drill.
Living in North Dakota the weather can play a tricky role in getting to school some days. Just last year we had so many late starts and full day cancellations due to snow and weather related conditions. I remember the the flood, spring of 2009, that took place in the Red River Valley. There are so many uncontrollable events that take place that can impact people getting to school or work. It is during those times that I feel so sorry for the administration. They have to spend so much extra time on the phone calling parents and teachers letting them know what the plan for the day is. Our present option to find out what is going on in the event of a snow storm or weather related delay is to wake up early and listen to the radio in hopes of hearing the schools name. Just think how simple a process this could be if a system like Instant-Alert was in place. A parent can get an automated phone call on any number of desired phone numbers, e-mail and text messages instantly. This just seems like a more reliable immediate way of handling things. Just think if Tech Teacher Booth’s school had this. It would have completely eliminated any sort of confusion that obviously took place during their unintentional chaotic drill.
I was also quite impressed at the cost for a system like this. As you can see from the comparisons made in this article, the price per student is quite minimal. I know our school is picking up the tab for each student enrolled in the system. Quite a small price to pay for peace of mind!
I thought I would continue my line of thinking from my last blog for two reasons. First, I was alarmed by the reply Tech Teach Booth wrote about. Her school had a drill and to make a long story short, it sounded like it caused hysteria and chaos. I teach in a very small school and really can’t imagine what a mess it probably was with a much bigger school. It is such a shame that the teachers and faculty were not more prepared and alerted to the drill process. I can’t imagine how the parents felt sitting in the parking lot wondering what was going on.
Secondly, I also recently read a letter sent out to all parents from my school. It was describing an alert system that they were going to be implementing starting this school year. The system is called Instant-Alert by Honeywell. This is a web-based emergency notification system that can send out any kind of message and reach a targeted audience in one fell swoop. I can’t help but think had Ms. Booth’s school had a system like this in place the chaos could have been completely avoided during her school drill.
Living in North Dakota the weather can play a tricky role in getting to school some days. Just last year we had so many late starts and full day cancellations due to snow and weather related conditions. I remember the the flood, spring of 2009, that took place in the Red River Valley. There are so many uncontrollable events that take place that can impact people getting to school or work. It is during those times that I feel so sorry for the administration. They have to spend so much extra time on the phone calling parents and teachers letting them know what the plan for the day is. Our present option to find out what is going on in the event of a snow storm or weather related delay is to wake up early and listen to the radio in hopes of hearing the schools name. Just think how simple a process this could be if a system like Instant-Alert was in place. A parent can get an automated phone call on any number of desired phone numbers, e-mail and text messages instantly. This just seems like a more reliable immediate way of handling things. Just think if Tech Teacher Booth’s school had this. It would have completely eliminated any sort of confusion that obviously took place during their unintentional chaotic drill.
I was also quite impressed at the cost for a system like this. As you can see from the comparisons made in this article, the price per student is quite minimal. I know our school is picking up the tab for each student enrolled in the system. Quite a small price to pay for peace of mind!
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
School Safety
School Safety
I have so many ideas spinning around in my head for Blog #4. The stabbing incident in a Florida high school and the murder of a Yale graduate student has spiked my interest in school safety. A comment made by my husband struck me as interesting about the Florida incident. He thought it was surprising that the stabbing was even mentioned at all on national news. It is usually shootings that we hear about, and then the news media goes ballistic (pardon the pun) about them. Why is that?
When the incident happened in Florida on Sept. 15, it was reported immediately that the school went into lock down. That brought back memories of when our rinky-dink little school in the middle of no-where North Dakota had to be put into lock down. There was a bank robbery in a near by town and the thought was that the robber(s), who were thought to be armed, might be traveling our direction. We took action as we were told, not as we had planned or practiced. We had a plan for this, I think, but never had to use it. We were all assigned a class/grade and we took them to a classroom. We locked the door and hid in corners with the lights off. My particular set of students I was with was 3rd/4th grade. They kids did not take the situation seriously at all. It was just a big joke to them. But I felt the big joke was really on us. As I sat there and looked around my surroundings we were not safe at all. There are windows on either side of the door. A lot of good that would do against a person determined to get in the room. There are windows all along the outside walls of the classroom. This would have been an escape route for us, but also a way to break-in from the outside. As I sat there protecting my classroom flashes of the Virginia Tech massacre ran through my mind. This tragedy had just taken place. I remember hearing about the professors that stood in front of the door to help protect their students from the violence. It was then that the reality of the situation hit me. If I was put in the position to put my life in grave danger, would I be able to. At the time of the bank robbery and lock down my daughter was 1 ½ years old. This was first and foremost in my thoughts. Would I be able to act as expected for fear of my daughter?
The whole situation turned out to be uneventful. The day continued on as normal. We all went about our business as usual. Until actually faced with a situation like that you really don’t know how you will react. I don’t remember reading anything like that in the job description. How do you think you would handle things?
I have so many ideas spinning around in my head for Blog #4. The stabbing incident in a Florida high school and the murder of a Yale graduate student has spiked my interest in school safety. A comment made by my husband struck me as interesting about the Florida incident. He thought it was surprising that the stabbing was even mentioned at all on national news. It is usually shootings that we hear about, and then the news media goes ballistic (pardon the pun) about them. Why is that?
When the incident happened in Florida on Sept. 15, it was reported immediately that the school went into lock down. That brought back memories of when our rinky-dink little school in the middle of no-where North Dakota had to be put into lock down. There was a bank robbery in a near by town and the thought was that the robber(s), who were thought to be armed, might be traveling our direction. We took action as we were told, not as we had planned or practiced. We had a plan for this, I think, but never had to use it. We were all assigned a class/grade and we took them to a classroom. We locked the door and hid in corners with the lights off. My particular set of students I was with was 3rd/4th grade. They kids did not take the situation seriously at all. It was just a big joke to them. But I felt the big joke was really on us. As I sat there and looked around my surroundings we were not safe at all. There are windows on either side of the door. A lot of good that would do against a person determined to get in the room. There are windows all along the outside walls of the classroom. This would have been an escape route for us, but also a way to break-in from the outside. As I sat there protecting my classroom flashes of the Virginia Tech massacre ran through my mind. This tragedy had just taken place. I remember hearing about the professors that stood in front of the door to help protect their students from the violence. It was then that the reality of the situation hit me. If I was put in the position to put my life in grave danger, would I be able to. At the time of the bank robbery and lock down my daughter was 1 ½ years old. This was first and foremost in my thoughts. Would I be able to act as expected for fear of my daughter?
The whole situation turned out to be uneventful. The day continued on as normal. We all went about our business as usual. Until actually faced with a situation like that you really don’t know how you will react. I don’t remember reading anything like that in the job description. How do you think you would handle things?
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Top-Notch Teachers Found to Affect Peers
Top-Notch Teachers Found to Affect Peers
This article struck a chord with me. It made me think about my first year of teaching. I came to a small town for my first teaching job. It was a small school with maybe 20 faculty members including ancillary staff. I was the only rookie among a staff of veteran teachers 20 years my senior with that much more experience than me. None of them were music teachers with me, but that didn’t matter. I knew subject matter. They taught me how to be a “teacher”. The quality of our school was impeccable because of the staff and their investment in the school. They had the respect of the kids. They had the respect of the community. They had the respect of their peers. Their level of professionalism was unparalleled. I easily adopted their ways. It was clear they had an affect on me personally and professionally. This all took place almost 2 decades ago, in the days when signing bonuses or merit pay were not even really heard of. Monetary incentives were not necessary then. The incentive I got was to be as good a teacher as my co-workers. That was the ultimate payment. If a monetary incentive for achievement had presented for the group, it would have been easy to accomplish with a faculty like the one I was part of.
Fast forward 10 years later when the dream team retires. That is when things changed drastically. We had 8 faculty members retire, including a superintendent that had been at this school for 38 years. All the retirees had to be replaced. They were replaced with young teachers, right out of college, with the same issues I had when I started. The difference was they didn’t have an abundance of veteran teachers surrounding them. They were also being hired during a time when teachers in certain fields were hard to come by and signing bonuses were now being considered and used. Two things about this scenario really bothered me. The caliber of our school plummeted as a result of a majority of rookies on staff, possibly through no fault of their own. They just didn’t have the influence of experience. The other thing was that I had now been at this school for over 10 years. Clearly I was a tenured teacher who was working hard to climb the salary ladder. In comes rookie in a critical area and can get paid more than me just because of the field they happen to be in. It really gave me ill feelings.
I have to agree with the article where it says individual merit pay or signing bonuses only create friction and competition to work independently. I agree with merit pay and signing bonuses, but for the right reasons, something like Katie Denison suggested in at the end of her article.
This article struck a chord with me. It made me think about my first year of teaching. I came to a small town for my first teaching job. It was a small school with maybe 20 faculty members including ancillary staff. I was the only rookie among a staff of veteran teachers 20 years my senior with that much more experience than me. None of them were music teachers with me, but that didn’t matter. I knew subject matter. They taught me how to be a “teacher”. The quality of our school was impeccable because of the staff and their investment in the school. They had the respect of the kids. They had the respect of the community. They had the respect of their peers. Their level of professionalism was unparalleled. I easily adopted their ways. It was clear they had an affect on me personally and professionally. This all took place almost 2 decades ago, in the days when signing bonuses or merit pay were not even really heard of. Monetary incentives were not necessary then. The incentive I got was to be as good a teacher as my co-workers. That was the ultimate payment. If a monetary incentive for achievement had presented for the group, it would have been easy to accomplish with a faculty like the one I was part of.
Fast forward 10 years later when the dream team retires. That is when things changed drastically. We had 8 faculty members retire, including a superintendent that had been at this school for 38 years. All the retirees had to be replaced. They were replaced with young teachers, right out of college, with the same issues I had when I started. The difference was they didn’t have an abundance of veteran teachers surrounding them. They were also being hired during a time when teachers in certain fields were hard to come by and signing bonuses were now being considered and used. Two things about this scenario really bothered me. The caliber of our school plummeted as a result of a majority of rookies on staff, possibly through no fault of their own. They just didn’t have the influence of experience. The other thing was that I had now been at this school for over 10 years. Clearly I was a tenured teacher who was working hard to climb the salary ladder. In comes rookie in a critical area and can get paid more than me just because of the field they happen to be in. It really gave me ill feelings.
I have to agree with the article where it says individual merit pay or signing bonuses only create friction and competition to work independently. I agree with merit pay and signing bonuses, but for the right reasons, something like Katie Denison suggested in at the end of her article.
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Should Teachers Rule the World (or at least the school)?
Should Teachers run the school?
After reading chapter one from “Teaching Strategies, a Guide to Effective Instruction” I contemplated what I could blog about. I kept coming back to what had caught my attention right off the bat when I read it. The section about decision making and responsibility has always been a concept I have had an opinion about throughout my teaching career. I had just read an article in the Minneapolis StarTribune over the past weekend geared toward the same line of thinking. It has long been my personal theoretical idea that teachers and students should be left alone on a deserted island for the duration of a student’s education, to be as far away from parents and administration as possible. I have had so many experiences that if the teacher and the student would be “left alone” life would be good. Some how letting the teacher teach and the students learn sounds so ideal. Outside of my reality show-esque thinking, a more realistic opportunity is on the forefront. Minnesota is actually following through with a reform that is relinquishing power over to the teachers. A question can be posed than, that if teachers are in power would there be more accountability for student success? Would that improve learning and the whole educational process? I sort of feel like this is one of those no-brainers where you smack your self in the forehead and say “duh”. How could it not lead to more academic success. There would be no interference from administration that the teacher could actually just teach. I have often been posed the question “do you like/love teacing”? My frequently given answer is: “I don’t know, it has been so long since I have taught, I couldn’t tell you. I find that I am so often dealing with the proverbial bureaucratic red that my art of teaching is lost. Here is where my reality game show would come in. The premise would be teachers and students stranded on a tropical island (just for added flair) and you are eliminated based on who learns the least!
I was amused by one of the comments left by a reader that said this is a bad idea because leaders need to be clueless. That is clearly not the definition of a teacher. I liked this comment but look out if you continue to read the list of other comments. It was very negative towards teachers and teacher unions. I guess maybe I missed the boat with the involvement of the union as one of the governing bodies. I was really just focused on teachers being in charge. Clearly there is a strong opinion out there about unions and teachers in general. That is an idea for a future blog. For now I will just live in the delusional moment where teachers can be in charge.
After reading chapter one from “Teaching Strategies, a Guide to Effective Instruction” I contemplated what I could blog about. I kept coming back to what had caught my attention right off the bat when I read it. The section about decision making and responsibility has always been a concept I have had an opinion about throughout my teaching career. I had just read an article in the Minneapolis StarTribune over the past weekend geared toward the same line of thinking. It has long been my personal theoretical idea that teachers and students should be left alone on a deserted island for the duration of a student’s education, to be as far away from parents and administration as possible. I have had so many experiences that if the teacher and the student would be “left alone” life would be good. Some how letting the teacher teach and the students learn sounds so ideal. Outside of my reality show-esque thinking, a more realistic opportunity is on the forefront. Minnesota is actually following through with a reform that is relinquishing power over to the teachers. A question can be posed than, that if teachers are in power would there be more accountability for student success? Would that improve learning and the whole educational process? I sort of feel like this is one of those no-brainers where you smack your self in the forehead and say “duh”. How could it not lead to more academic success. There would be no interference from administration that the teacher could actually just teach. I have often been posed the question “do you like/love teacing”? My frequently given answer is: “I don’t know, it has been so long since I have taught, I couldn’t tell you. I find that I am so often dealing with the proverbial bureaucratic red that my art of teaching is lost. Here is where my reality game show would come in. The premise would be teachers and students stranded on a tropical island (just for added flair) and you are eliminated based on who learns the least!
I was amused by one of the comments left by a reader that said this is a bad idea because leaders need to be clueless. That is clearly not the definition of a teacher. I liked this comment but look out if you continue to read the list of other comments. It was very negative towards teachers and teacher unions. I guess maybe I missed the boat with the involvement of the union as one of the governing bodies. I was really just focused on teachers being in charge. Clearly there is a strong opinion out there about unions and teachers in general. That is an idea for a future blog. For now I will just live in the delusional moment where teachers can be in charge.
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Online Education: is it a wise choice?
I am embarking on my master’s degree via an all online program. I have been contemplating this most of the summer. What led me on this path of contemplation was that I found myself in quite a dilemma. My teaching position at my school had been drastically changed and I was unhappy with the change. To top it off, I found out I was expecting a baby the very day I was informed that my job of 17 years would be profoundly changed: (non-renewed and re-hired at 60% load). I chose to take a sabbatical for the upcoming school year. It was then that it hit me that while I am taking some time off that I should pursue an advanced degree. Sure, a master's degree sounds great, but how could I accomplish that. I am married to a farmer and I have a small child and expecting another. I am simply tied down and I am not willing or able to go to a conventional institution and attend "regular" face-to-face classes. I had to consider online education. I spent many countless hours searching for information on the Internet. Google and online master’s degree searches became images burned onto the screen of my laptop. It all seemed so overwhelming. There was so much information to digest. When the dust settled, I had found something I was happy with. I applied, was accepted and enrolled. Then the fear of what had I done hit me. Online courses? Am I out of my mind? How can this possibly be better than “real” education? After some more investigating and questioning, I really felt that an online program was actually going to be a great fit for me. The flexibility was what intrigued me the most. Although I am not working this school year, I still had real life to contend with. The ability to work at my own pace and in the comfort of my own home was just right. Could I be disciplined enough to perform at an acceptable level? That will be something that will have to be determined as I go. I certainly plan to be successful.
We have had some exposure to “online” education at our school through the IVN system. I have seen it be both a good thing and a bad thing. It gives students opportunity to take a class not offered at our school. Since we are a small school there aren’t many choices to be had in the daily schedule. But I am not convinced the instructing has been conducive to the best learning environment. I have seen kids squander their class time as well! This is sort of the same concept with Online Education. Basically, if it is online, it is available to you. You get out of it what you put into it. What a web of wonderful opportunities.
As I have discovered by a study done by SRI International for the Department of Education my decision to study online is apparently a good one. I feel better knowing that there is some sort of “scientific” evidence to support my choice.
We have had some exposure to “online” education at our school through the IVN system. I have seen it be both a good thing and a bad thing. It gives students opportunity to take a class not offered at our school. Since we are a small school there aren’t many choices to be had in the daily schedule. But I am not convinced the instructing has been conducive to the best learning environment. I have seen kids squander their class time as well! This is sort of the same concept with Online Education. Basically, if it is online, it is available to you. You get out of it what you put into it. What a web of wonderful opportunities.
As I have discovered by a study done by SRI International for the Department of Education my decision to study online is apparently a good one. I feel better knowing that there is some sort of “scientific” evidence to support my choice.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)