Tuesday night at ‘Curriculum Night’ at our school, I’m scheduled to discuss with the parents of our class my blogging project. I happened on «this article about blogging in schools», which will help reinforce my presentation:

‘Last spring, when Marisa L. Dudiak’s second-grade class in Frederick County, Md., returned from a field trip to a Native American farm, all the students wanted to do was talk about what they saw. But instead of leading a discussion about the trip, Dudiak had the students sign on to their classroom Web log. There they wrote about learning to use a bow and arrow, sitting inside a tepee and petting a buffalo. The short entries were typical of second-grade writing, with misspelled words and simple sentences. Still, for Dudiak, the exercise proved more fruitful than a group discussion or a handwritten entry in a personal journal. “It allowed them to interact with their peers more quickly than a journal,” she said, “and it evened the playing field.” Dudiak said she found that those who were quiet in class usually came alive online. … For teachers, blogs are attractive because they require little effort to maintain, unlike more elaborate classroom Web sites, which were once heralded as a boon for teaching. Helped by templates found at sites like tblog.com and movabletype.org, teachers can build a blog or start a new topic in an existing blog by simply typing text into a box and clicking a button. Such ease of use is the primary reason that Peter Grunwald, an education consultant, predicts that blogs will eventually become a more successful teaching tool than Web sites.’
—New York Times

Ergo, the main rationale for my discussion with parents Tuesday night. I doubt any will have objections. I’ve been careful to think through security aspects as well as the rationale for why I want the kids to do this. Should be interesting to hear what comes up.

Since I’m interning with second graders during my year of grad studies, «this article about schools’ sophisticated approach to second grade» from last January caught my eye this weekend:

‘On the chalkboard in Isabelle Berges’ classroom is the day’s schedule, filled with activities for every hour. On the walls are posters with need-to-know subject matter, including a list of math vocabulary — vertices, faces and lines of symmetry — how to write for information or persuasion, and the proper use of metaphors and similes, antonyms and synonyms. This is second grade. … New skills and concepts are being taught, sometimes at near-breakneck speed: Children are asked to write in paragraphs instead of sentences, and teachers lead activities intended as warm-ups for the onslaught of standardized tests that have become the driving force in American public education under the federal No Child Left Behind law.
‘Some educators welcome the changes, saying second-graders had been babied and are capable of doing far more sophisticated work. Today’s high expectations are vital for academic progress, they say. Other educators applaud high expectations but question how many second-graders — most of whom are 7 years old when they start the school year — are developmentally ready for the new tasks. “We’re asking a lot of our kids in second grade today,” said Philip Catania, principal of Mount Rainier Elementary School in Prince George’s County, Md., where Berges teaches. “Having high expectations is good. But without question, sometimes we are asking them to do more” than they might be ready to do.’
—<em>The Washington Post</em>

I’ve been amazed already in the first two weeks at some of things second graders are taught … and many of things that they already know or are capable of knowing. One student, surely the kid most excited about science I’ve ever seen, wanted to know if we’ll be covering thermodynamics in science class and we later talked about the role of plate tectonics in earthquakes. She’s not quite seven years old.

Still, you have to wonder about the pressure. High expectations are great, but what about the effects of the inevitable stress many kids will feel? I had classmates way back in the easy-going 70’s who were so high-strung about getting As that they had nose bleeds before tests and almost had heart attacks before taking the SAT. Then there’s the kids who are already falling behind a bit after first grade; lessons taught at a breakneck pace that he doesn’t understand will just put him further and further behind.

Interesting stuff. We’ll see how this plays out over this year.

An article this week pointed out the growing issue of «religious groups successfully integrating bible courses in public school curriculum»:

‘When the school board in Odessa, the West Texas oil town, voted unanimously in April to add an elective Bible study course to the 2006 high school curriculum, some parents dropped to their knees in prayerful thanks that God would be returned to the classroom, while others assailed it as an effort to instill religious training in the public schools. Hundreds of miles away, leaders of the National Council on Bible Curriculum in Public Schools notched another victory. A religious advocacy group based in Greensboro, N.C., the council has been pressing a 12-year campaign to get school boards across the country to accept its Bible curriculum. The council calls its course a nonsectarian historical and literary survey class within constitutional guidelines requiring the separation of church and state.
‘But a growing chorus of critics says the course, taught by local teachers trained by the council, conceals a religious agenda. The critics say it ignores evolution in favor of creationism and gives credence to dubious assertions that the Constitution is based on the Scriptures, and that “documented research through NASA” backs the biblical account of the sun standing still. In the latest salvo, the Texas Freedom Network, an advocacy group for religious freedom, has called a news conference for Monday to release a study that finds the national council’s course to be “an error-riddled Bible curriculum that attempts to persuade students and teachers to adopt views that are held primarily within conservative Protestant circles.” The dispute has made the curriculum, which the national council says is used by more than 175,000 students in 312 school districts in 37 states, the latest flashpoint in the continuing culture wars over religious influences in the public domain.’
—New York Times

In another social studies methods debate last week, we were asked the question, ‘What would you say if a parent came to you and said he/she didn’t want you teaching his child any moral values of any kind?’ I responded by saying that the most likely scenario was a parent who wanted certain particular moral and religious values taught, not the other way around. We didn’t reach any real conclusions on what to say, and parental communication issues remains the great weakness or black hole of the University of Michigan’s master’s in education with certification program.

But then, maybe it’s a northern thing, and these Michiganders and New Yorkers don’t have to deal with it as often as us southerners. Interesting.

«A very worthy cause»:

‘The Literacy Site was founded to help promote literacy among children from low-income families nationwide. Partnering with First Book, the site makes books available to children around the country, giving many children their very first book. With the generous support of our sponsors, each click provides 1% of a book. Making books a part of a child’s life is the best way to encourage the love of reading. In addition to clicking the red “Give Free Books” button, visitors can help make books available by shopping in The Literacy Site store. With each item purchased, shoppers generate funds for free books for children in need. The store offers a wide array of unique and meaningful items, including apparel, jewelry, home accents and gifts from around the world.’
—The Literacy Site

Right on!

This week saw an article which dovetailed exactly with a debate we had in grad school; «Bush issued a firm statement of support for the teaching of ‘intelligent design’ theory»:

‘A sharp debate between scientists and religious conservatives escalated Tuesday over comments by … Bush that the theory of intelligent design should be taught with evolution in the nation’s public schools. In an interview at the White House on Monday with a group of Texas newspaper reporters, Mr. Bush appeared to endorse the push by many of his conservative Christian supporters to give intelligent design equal treatment with the theory of evolution. Recalling his days as Texas governor, Mr. Bush said in the interview, according to a transcript, “I felt like both sides ought to be properly taught.” Asked again by a reporter whether he believed that both sides in the debate between evolution and intelligent design should be taught in the schools, Mr. Bush replied that he did, “so people can understand what the debate is about.” Mr. Bush was pressed as to whether he accepted the view that intelligent design was an alternative to evolution, but he did not directly answer. “I think that part of education is to expose people to different schools of thought,” he said, adding that “you’re asking me whether or not people ought to be exposed to different ideas, and the answer is yes.”’
—New York Times

In a debate in our social studies methods class we had last week, there was a range of opinion on the issue. It was a foreshadowing of the debates we will most certainly have in our science methods course this winter and it should prove to be very interesting, as long as some of us can avoid getting our feelings hurt. It’s surprising how contentious an issue it is.

«Ann Arbor teachers finally have a contract» and Ann Arbor students now have a date with the classroom:

‘It’s official: School in Ann Arbor will begin Aug. 29. After three months of contract negotiations between Ann Arbor Public Schools administrators and the district’s 1,250-member teacher’s union, the framework for a tentative agreement was reached Friday. Details of the teachers’ one-year agreement will be announced following meetings of the union membership and the Board of Education in the coming weeks. But at this point, representatives from both sides said they are happy, as are parents who will finally be able to plan their vacation time once the full calendar is released Tuesday.’
—Ann Arbor News

And so I have a date too: My first day with Burns Park Elementary School second graders is 29-Aug. Very exciting.

First Ebonics, now «this»:

‘The word “fail” should be banned from use in British classrooms and replaced with the phrase “deferred success” to avoid demoralizing pupils, a group of teachers has proposed. Members of the Professional Association of Teachers (PAT) argue that telling pupils they have failed can put them off learning for life.’

Yeesh.

Having a reference librarian in the family is a mighty handy thing. Tonight, Frank brought home an anthology called ‘Going Public With Our Teaching’ which he thought might be fun for me to read. Like I don’t have anything to read, ya know? But that’s what great librarians do, they connect us to great texts. Gotta love ‘em. And even though I’m still plowing through the ‘General Foch on the Marne’ text and the McCarthyist tracts from the 1950s on how Communists have infiltrated government and military he rescued from the Gov Docs dustbin, this latest find looked pretty relevant to life in ELMAC, so I opened it up.

There was a bit of a surprise inside: two of the contributors are Deborah Ball, current interim dean of the School of Ed, and Tim Boerst, our fall Math Methods instructor. Tim’s contribution, ‘The First Day of School: A Reflective Narrative Analysis,’ is the first essay in the book and contains some very relevant thoughts on that all-important first day of school and the ‘Sunday Troubles,’ the pre-Monday morning unease/anticipation/jitters that you get on Sunday nights which I’ve had myself for lo these many years.

It’s basically a string of excerpts from journals he kept in 1997 when he was teaching fifth graders and contains the interesting information that he was born 21-Oct-1968. Now for some of you, so what? But for me, well, I’m not accustomed to having college instructors who are younger than I am.

I’m switching [this site] from TextPattern to WordPress, which offers more features, more speed and better ease-of-use. It will take me a bit to put all the pieces back in place, so thanks for bearing with me for the moment.

A new study casts «doubt on the cherished right-wing assumption that privatization is best for education»:

’”A New Look at Public and Private Schools: Student Background and Mathematics Achievement” appears in the May issue of Phi Delta Kappan, a highly regarded education journal. Analyzing raw data from the 2000 National Assessment of Educational Progress for 28,000 fourth- and eighth-graders representing more than 1,300 public and private schools, Mrs. Lubienski, whose research focuses on equity issues in math education, was surprised by what she was seeing. When children of similar socioeconomic status were compared, the public school children scored higher.’
—Christian Science Monitor

It’s an interesting, if somewhat inconclusive, read.

It’s a sad day for kids when ‘experts’ have to «instruct parents to chill out»:

‘As the boy played behind the bushes at his Redwood City school, his obviously agitated mother grabbed him, abruptly escorting him to her car. “She asked him what he thought he was doing and proceeded to tell him all in one breath that he would never get into a good university or have a good job if he spent all his time playing and goofing around,” said Jim Dassise, a parent who watched the episode unfold. “He should be more like one of his friends, who spent his time studying and having good grades.” The boy was about 9 years old.
‘Moraga resident Cynthia Brian, an acting and media coach who works with children all over the country, has seen the same sort of pressure—sometimes self-imposed. “At 7 or 8 or 9,” she said, “they’re already talking about, ‘This is going to look good on my resume.’” Harried schedules, international competition and unrealistic expectations aren’t just for adults anymore. The pressure on students to get exceptional grades and build Harvard-quality resumes has gotten so bad that Stanford University has an annual Stressed Out Students conference this week to help intermediate and high school parents, teachers, administrators and—most of all—students. “They’re making themselves sick,” said Denise Pope, a Stanford School of Education lecturer and founder of Stressed Out Students. “And we’re complicit in that.”’
—SF Chronicle

Complicit? Ha! Adults, particularly parents and legislators, are not just complicit, but guilty.

Here’s a no-win situation for school officials: «a student is reprimanded for taking a call during class from his soldier mother in Iraq». As always, there’s more to the story … on both sides:

‘A Columbus, Georgia student will return to class Monday after serving three days’ suspension that began when his mother called him on his cell phone from Iraq, where she is deployed. Kevin Francois was initially suspended for 10 days for what Spencer High School officials said was his use of profanity after a teacher interrupted the conversation. … Muscogee County School District Superintendent John Phillips Jr. said Friday the suspension was not because of the phone call, but the result of Francois’ reaction to the teacher interrupting it. “The suspension was really incidental to the telephone. It was the behavior of the student, using profanity, screaming at the teacher,” Phillips said. “He became very belligerent and very threatening to her” when she asked him to turn over the phone, Phillips said. “He said he was 17 years old and he would do what he wanted to do,” Phillips told CNN-affiliate WTVM. The teacher took him to the principal’s office, where “he became very unruly and out of control,” said Phillips. “It was escalating to a point where they were getting ready to call security.” Francois disputed the school’s version of the story.’
—CNN

This problem will just get bigger as time goes by.

I finished Because of Winn-Dixie in about two hours this afternoon. I took a two-hour nap in the middle of it.

It is an easy-going, charming story, one of those that I like to call ‘gentle reads,’ books (both in kiddie lit and adult lit) that are enjoyable but not saccharine, comforting but not cloying.

It’s a perfect setup for older children to study and pulling lessons in other subjects from it would be a breeze. There’s the ‘10 Things About …’ lists for writing workshops, there are plenty of opportunities for discussions about differences among people and that appearances can be deceiving, and so. The Bottle Tree also presents some opportunities, even in science, although I’d have to think hard about how to do that.

Then, of course, as a reward at the end of the unit, there would be the DVD of the movie to watch, along with some discussion about how it differs from the book and why. The class could make an author connection and go on to read Kate DiCamillo’s other fine book, <em>Tale of Despereaux</em>, which I should also probably read before summer classes begin.

Now it’s off to do get a jumpstart on the real academic reading: Guided Reading: Good First Teaching for All Children. Not as much fun, that’s for sure. But necessary.

Today is «National Teacher Day»:

‘The origins of Teacher Day are murky. Around 1944 Arkansas teacher Mattye Whyte Woodridge began corresponding with political and education leaders about the need for a national day to honor teachers. Woodbridge wrote to Eleanor Roosevelt who in 1953 persuaded the 81st Congress to proclaim a National Teacher Day. NEA along with its Kansas and Indiana state affiliates and the Dodge City (Kan. ) local lobbied Congress to create a national day celebrating teachers. Congress declared March 7, 1980, as National Teacher Day for that year only. NEA and its affiliates continued to observe Teacher Day on the first Tuesday in March until 1985, when the National PTA established Teacher Appreciation Week as the first full week of May. The NEA Representative Assembly then voted to make the Tuesday of that week National Teacher Day.’

Today, I’m subbing at a middle school in the northwest part of town; it’s two eighth-grade English classes (two hours each), a short Advisory period and a Newspaper class. The teacher has a worksheet and video on the Holocaust. So it’s all right up my alley. It’s all good (except for the 5:30 a.m. wake-up call).

In the first class, we watched the 35-minute video and filled out the worksheet, then took a break. Afterwards, I wrote a bunch of terms on the board which related to the Holocaust and discussed them, then showed my pictures of Auschwitz on the overhead.

Time passed quickly and everybody was attentive. One or two took things a bit as a joke, smug and secure in what they think is a time and place so completely different and removed from Auschwitz that it might as well be Pluto.

One kid asked why, during Kristallnacht, that the Germans didn’t simply ask the Jews to pay money, instead of beating them up. Another asked why they would want to kill anyone else. The first kid asked if it hurts when your heart stops.

Most, however, ‘get it;’ they understood what the Shoah was, when it happened, why we talk about it and remember it and know that genocide still happens today.

It’s a day well-spent.

Yesterday, I attended what was supposed to have been my own graduation; the UM School of Education’s commencement exercises at Hill Auditorium.

It was a bit tough to see all the people I started the program with last July participate, while I was just a spectator in the balcony. But I think I’m most jealous that they’re finishing up and I haven’t even started. I hate starting (and adjusting to) new things.

But life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans, and I probably did make the right decision to defer the program for a year.

Physically, I’m hurting worse now than I was last year, but at least now I know what’s wrong and can pursue the right strategies (and pharmaceuticals) to try to live with it.

Afterwards, I went to a get-together in the home of a member of the Detroit program cohort. There was plenty of talk about the trials and tribulations and outrages of grad school and the ELMAC program in particular. For a few minutes, it made me a bit panicky, but, curiosly enough, I’m looking forward to certain things and determined not to let other things get me down.

I know there will be classes and people that I will really not enjoy. But my plan is to stay calm, focused and, above all, ahead of the deadlines. I’ll also have to try hard not to listen to the noise … the murmurings of discontent or exhaustion, even if they’re my own.

The goal is unchanged: In June ‘06, I can put that Master’s degree from UM on my resume and, armed with useful tidbits here and there from the program, I can be more employable than ever before.

Since I’ll check back on this entry a year from now after my own Commencement, I’ll write myself a note: ‘Hey Steve: Do you, my future self, want to slap me? Have you stuck to the plan? Chill out, dude, just six more weeks.’

There. I feel better.

Stan Karp, a Portland, OR, area teacher, wrote an essay on «why ‘No Child Left Behind’ is a hoax» almost a year ago, but I’ve just run across it today. It’s well worth quoting again:

‘1. The massive increase in testing that NCLB will impose on schools will hurt their educational performance, not improve it.<br />
‘2. The funding for NCLB does not come anywhere near the levels that would be needed to reach even the narrow and dubious goal of producing 100% passing rates on state tests for all students by 2014.
‘3. The mandate that NCLB imposes on schools to eliminate inequality in test scores among all student groups within 12 years is a mandate that is placed on no other social institution, and reflects the hypocrisy at the heart of the law.
‘4. The sanctions that NCLB imposes on schools that don’t meet its test score targets will hurt poor schools and poor communities most.
‘5. The transfer and choice provisions of NCLB will create chaos and produce greater inequality within the public system without increasing the capacity of receiving schools to deliver better educational services.
‘6. These same transfer and choice provisions will not give low-income parents any more control over school bureaucracies than food stamps give them over the supermarkets.
‘7. The provisions about using scientifically-based instructional practices are neither scientifically valid nor educationally sound and will harmfully impact classrooms in what may be the single most important instructional area, the teaching of reading.
‘8. The supplemental tutorial provisions of NCLB will channel public funds to private companies for ideological and political reasons, not sound educational ones.
‘9. NCLB is part of a larger political and ideological effort to privatize social programs, reduce the public sector, and ultimately replace local control of institutions like schools with marketplace reforms that substitute commercial relations between customers for democratic relations between citizens.
‘10. NCLB moves control over curriculum and instructional issues away from teachers, classrooms, schools and local districts where it should be, and puts it in the hands of state and federal education bureaucracies and politicians. It represents the single biggest assault on local control of schools in the history of federal education policy. …
‘11. NCLB includes provisions that try to push prayer, military recruiters, and homophobia into schools while pushing multiculturalism, teacher innovation, and creative curriculum reform out.’
—Portland Oregonian

Amen to all that.

More pre-grad school mail came today; the announcement of my School of Ed Fellowship, which is $1,250 for this summer and $1,250 for next summer and $2,500 for the fall and $2,500 for the spring. It’s very good news financially and I’ll send my acceptance back. Every dime will help (especially since I’ll need a new laptop this summer in order to survive the program).

I still need to make appointments with the Residency Classification office, the disability office and LGBT affairs to have some pertinent discussions. I also need to make sure Financial Aid will be forthcoming just like last year.        

Is it real? Or did I make it up?

‘Once upon a time in detroit there lived a gangsta named Darnell. he was a pimp, thug, and we as I said a gangsta. he had nothing to do with drugs cause he wasn’t that type of thug. he was also a rapper. he lived in detroit so fans couldn’t find him. he was a fried of 2-Pac, and was getting introduced to the game. one night when he was in his corvet in las vegas, driving down the road high as a mutha figure.’

I finally returned my ELMAC preferences form to the School of Ed today. The week’s delay reflects my … internal ambivalence, shall we say, about the program and whether going upwards of $60,000 in debt is worth it.

I’m not sure these doubts will ever go away, at least not before June ‘06. But lord knows I’ve been wrong about these things before.

Received the kick-off communique for ELMAC 8 today: an e-mail from Dr. R. with all the little details and things that have to be done by June 28, which is orientation day.

I’m still a bit unsure about whether I should do the program or not and why I’m doing it and all that. But I have no really compelling reason not to move forward, so here we go.

Looks like «someone at American Express needs some remedial English classes»:

‘Previously, if you paid the new balance on your prior statement in full by the payment due date, finance charges would not be assessed on purchases during the current billing period. We are changing the grace period so that when you pay the prior new balance by the payment due date, finance charges will be assessed on purchases during the current billing period until the date that full payment of the prior new balance was received; purchases will not have a grace period for the entire billing period in this instance. However, if you paid the new balance on each of your two prior statements by their respective payment due dates, you will not be assessed finance charges on purchases for the entire current billing period.’
—SF Chronicle

As the article notes, it goes on in this vein for a couple hundred more eye-crossing words.

Unless you’re trying to obfuscate things in order to extract more bucks from your customers, it’s classic corporate lawyer-speak and is a textbook example of how not to communicate.

Today I took the first step in re-starting grad school; I had a conversation with the director of the Ann Arbor Cohort of ELMAC, Dr. R. We discussed my current physical state and whether it was a good idea to give the program a second try.

It was a reassuring talk; she’s a very … comforting person to talk to (at least at this point). I stressed a prime concern: That physically I didn’t feel like I could handle commuting to Detroit (or even the Wayne-Westland district) for the year. Driving to Oklahoma was not fun, and doing it for two hours every day for a year would be very hard for me. It doesn’t help, of course, that gas is now $2.24 a gallon and commuting that far would be a financial hardship. She made no promises of course, but felt it would be no problem to assign me to the Ann Arbor cohort and to an Ann Arbor school. Getting those assignments would be a tremendous relief and removal of a large handicap for me. I believe that if they end up assigning me to Detroit, I would probably not participate in the program.

It also helped that, at the end of our appointment, I saw the instructor for the summer social studies class and she remembered me and said how disappointed they had been that I had to defer and how much she was looking forward to having me back. Encouragement is always a good thing.

So, I stopped by the Office of Student Services and had them move me from the deferred list. I am now officially matriculated to become part of the University of Michigan School of Education’s Master of Arts in Education with Elementary Certification (ELMAC) program, cohort 8B, which runs from 28-Jun-05 to 15-Jun-06.

Good god.

In a Chicago suburb, a «private church school ordered a mother to spank her son or else»:

‘A 6-year-old boy who often talked too much in class was suspended from 1st grade at Schaumburg Christian School last week after his mother refused to spank him. Chandler Scott Fallaw, a rambunctious boy, had been piling up disciplinary notes for talking, chewing gum, bringing toys to class and not finishing classwork, said his mother, Michelle Fallaw-Gabrielson. “By no means is my child perfect,” she acknowledged. But she never anticipated the ultimatum delivered at school Wednesday.
‘When she arrived to pick up Chandler, she said, assistant administrator Linda Moreau told her the school needed assurances that the boy would be disciplined. “She said, `Either he gets a spanking before he leaves today, or I’m suspending him,’” Fallaw-Gabrielson recalled. She said she refused to spank her son and left with the assistant administrator calling after her: “You know he’s suspended, and that’s a very serious matter on his record.” Fallaw-Gabrielson withdrew Chandler from the school the next day.’
—Chicago Tribune

As the article notes, he’s already reading on a third-grade level and was probably unchallenged and bored. But schools (especially church schools) are all about uniformity and obedience above all. Once again, society punishes a potential excellence in favor of mediocrity and conformity.

The church school thing is unfortunate, but I imagine the kid will probably be better off schooled at home rather than being suppressed in church or public education environments.

There’s an interesting paragraph in a Raw Story column about «public schools and social mobility»:

‘Kids have their first major outside-the-home experience when they go to school for the first time. So, of course if when they go to school they’re surrounded by filth, their ideas about the direction of their life begin to be formed as such. In being forced to sit in a dilapidated building with overcrowded classrooms and no proffered nutrition, kids are being told in a pretty straightforward manner that they’re worthless. Subsequently, they see little value in accepting what their school offers, hence don’t study, and hence probably just barely achieve their life goal of graduating from high school.’
—Raw Story

Amen.

*When the Drama Club is Not Enough: Lessons from the Safe School Program for Gay and Lesbian Students*
By Jeff Perrotti and Kim Westheimer
Beacon Press, Boston, MA, ©2001
Ann Arbor District Library
ISBN 0-8070-3130-5
LC 192.6.P47 2001
215pp.

I haven’t read this book yet; it’s next up on the list. It basically recounts lessons learned during the authors’ work with the Massachusetts Safe Schools Program for Gay and Lesbian Students, which grew out of a governor’s commission in the early 1990s, which recommended four efforts in this area, all of which were unanimously adopted as policy by the state Board of Education:

‘1. Develop policies that protect gay and lesbian students from harassment, violence and discrimination.
’2. Offer school personnel training in violence prevention and suicide prevention.
’3. Offer school-based support groups for gay, lesbian and heterosexual students.
’4. Provide school-based counseling for family members of gay, lesbian and heterosexual students.’

The book recounts experiences of three Massachusetts schools in implementing these policies. Should be interesting reading.

Real Men or Real Teachers? Contradictions in the Lives of Men Elementary School Teachers
By Paul Sargent, Ph.D.
Men’s Studies Press, Harriman, TN, ©2001
Ann Arbor District Library
ISBN 0-9671794-3-2
LC 776.2.S.27 2001
181pp.

‘_Nate_: ‘See, as a gay man, I feel folks are afraid I’m going to turn the kids gay. That’s always with me. In some situations, I also feel like people are watching me very closely to make sure I don’t molest the kids. If I happen to be close to a kid when someone comes in my class, I can just see their eyes measuring the distance between the child and me. If I pat a kid on the shoulder or something, their eyes just ZOOM in on my hand.’

This book looks into men working in predominantly female fields. It’s going to be invaluable over the next year as I pursue my master’s in elementary education. More on this later as I read it.

News from California: «An experiment with RFID badges for attendance purposes fails for a community school»:

‘It started with a girl who went home from junior high saying she felt like an orange. Lauren Tatro, 13, told her parents the plain facts. Every student at Brittan Elementary School had to wear a badge the size of an index card with their name, grade, photo — and a tiny radio identification tag. The purpose was to test a new high-tech attendance system. To the eighth-grader, it seemed students had been turned into grocery items on the shelf, slabs of sirloin at the meat counter, fruit in the produce section. So began a difficult stretch for this town of 2,885. Outraged parents claimed the school was trampling their children’s privacy and civil liberties, maybe even threatening their health. School board meetings overflowed. Folks talked of George Orwell, Big Brother and the Bible. The American Civil Liberties Union joined the fray. Parents picketed. TV news crews from as far away as Germany descended on the 600-student school.’
— LA Times

After much ado, the company that started the whole thing cancelled the whole experiment, took their toys and went home.

But don’t cry too hard for them; as always, controversy is the best publicity you can get. You can’t buy the publicity that occurs when adults start yelling at each other over kids (or other things for that matter).

Savvy people know this. Madonna, for instance, wouldn’t have a career if it weren’t for controversy; that Sex book was a complete joke, more stupid than sexy and her singing has never been particularly noteworthy. She owes her career and her millions to her ability to market herself through controversy. The more she was denounced from pulpits and had parental warning stickers stuck on her albums, the more money she made, ensuring that she made more albums and more controversy. That’s been her cycle for over twenty years, and it’s worked like a charm.

Just like it’s worked charmingly for InCom:

‘Ever since InCom’s name began appearing on TV and in newspaper stories around the country, the phone hasn’t stopped ringing. Many are callers from school districts wanting to adopt the technology. Ahlers said he won’t be surprised if some states eventually require the technology in schools. “This has been a very, very good experience,” he said. “They spelled our name right and spread it across the country.”’

Bingo. The bottom line. They lost the battle in Sutter, but may have just won the entire war for the rest of the country. Growth and profits will ensue and, just like the man said, some state legislators (southern and Republican, I predict) will embrace the whole thing and start requiring school children to be branded like cattle. The rest of society won’t be far behind; teachers will be tagged like students; Wal-Mart, the leviathan who may have done more than any other entity to bring RFID to maturity and popularity, will start tagging employees, and so on. And it will all be done in the name of efficiency, technology and, above all, safety.

Which always makes me remember the much-used-lately Benjamin Franklin quote:

‘They who would give up liberty to gain a little security deserve neither.’

There’s a whole Social Studies lesson plan in this somewhere …

It tooks brave and heroic people to stand up for what’s right, even when what’s right is decidedly unpopular. Often, it’s academics and intellectuals who fight to defend human rights such as freedom of expression.

Currently, a University of Colorado professor is the target of vicious rightwing attacks for expressing unpopular political views on the 11-Sep-01 terrorist attacks. But «he’s standing his ground»:

‘A University of Colorado professor under fire for comparing World Trade Center victims to a Nazi war criminal on Tuesday refused to apologize for his remarks. “I am not backing off an inch,” said Ward Churchill, drawing an ovation from a standing-room-only crowd of about 1,200 students and backers gathered in a ballroom. “I owe no one an apology.” Churchill, who filed a lawsuit earlier in the day after officials at the state-funded university had threatened to cancel his speech, said his central message was that the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks had been provoked by U.S. foreign policy. “Naturally and inevitably, what you put out will blow back on you and that’s what happened,” Churchill said.’
—MyWay.com

One of the spiritual fathers of the republic that Americans like to pretend to revere once said:

‘I may disagree with what you have to say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.’

How sad that we’ve come so far [see post below about current high schoolers’ opinions about the First Amendment] from such noble expression of human enlightenment.

Even as bigger, more important problems plague the society and the nation and the educational establishment, many are still mired down in the great freak-out of our time: gay people.

Latest episode of the Great American Culture War in the public schools: «White County, GA», where people are in total panic over the formation of a Gay-Straight Alliance:

‘The creation of a club for gay students and sympathetic classmates has triggered an uproar at White County High School, whose administration says it has no legal grounds to stop the group from meeting despite parent and teacher opposition. In an e-mail last week to faculty, White County School Superintendent Paul Shaw said a Gay-Straight Alliance was being formed at the high school and that the group had the right to exist as long as it followed rules that apply to all clubs. “The administration is opposed to this action, but the Equal Access Act requires that students be allowed to form a club if there are other noncurricular clubs operating at the high school,” Shaw wrote He added: “It has been suggested that I spend tax dollars to fight the law. I do not believe I need to spend tax dollars on a case that cannot be won. “The money needs to be spent on raising salaries of our noncertified staff, lowering class sizes and providing equipment, supplies and technology.”’
—Gainesville Times_

It’s typical rightwing language: ‘We hate this evil being thrust upon us by the evil gays, but if we stood up to it, we’d have to spend millions to fight off the evil ACLU. Aren’t we virtuous and aren’t they evil?’

Gay: It’s the new black.

Today’s political and business climate sadly means one can be fire for little or no reason, with little or no recourse. This is especially true with the fairly recent phenomenon of employees being fired for writing online blogs, even ones which don’t identify the company’s the work for or the people with whom they work.

There’s even a new pop culture term for this; if you are fired for keeping a work-related blog, you are said to be Dooced. The origin of the name comes from the experience of «Dooce» (Heather Hamilton) who was fired in 2002. Others have followed, including a Delta Air Lines’ flight attendant, fired because she posted photos of herself (without identifying Delta in the blog or by Delta’s logos in photos).

The latest Dooced victim, however, is a bit different; this one is «a newly hired Google employee fired for starting a blog about Google life almost at the same time as he was hired». Ironic, because Google now owns Blogger and is supposedly a champion of the craze.

Worse, Mark Jen’s website, «99 Zeroes» reveals that he spent almost all his money moving from Seattle to California in order to work for Google. It’s a pity, since he’s now out of job. And I’m sure the pain is even worse since it was such a public act.

Doocing will become a hotter issue as things go along, causing trouble even for the likes of Google.

‘The employee blog issue is doubly sensitive for Google, which became a prominent booster of blogging through its acquisition of Web logging pioneer Pyra Labs in February 2003. The company also has made a point of putting ethics before profits in its business operations, suggesting it holds itself to a higher standard of care than the average for customers and employees. While details of Jen’s departure are unclear, the newbie Googler ran into trouble at the company almost immediately when he decided to record his impressions of Google on a blog called Ninetyninezeros — one zero short of the mathematical term known as a “googol.” Jen began making entries in Ninetyninezeros on Jan. 17, and soon drew the notice of other bloggers. Curiosity spiked when the postings temporarily disappeared about a week later. On Jan. 26, an edited version of the blog reappeared on the site, with a new entry explaining the on-again, off-again commentary. Gone was the first day’s post explaining his reasons for creating the blog, as well as a description of an employee orientation event that vaguely touched on discussions of Google’s booming business.’
—99Zeros

Things like this are pretty much why I stopped writing even vague details about subbing. School districts are notoriously humorless about things like this; administrators especially would not understand blogging.

So, we’ll stick to more general/societal topics here, as well as my experiences in grad school, if I get back into it this summer.

Getting Dooced would be not a good thing at this point.

As reported on «Tolerance.org», disturbing news from the nation’s high schools: students fail to understand, appreciate and uphold freedom of speech and press:

‘_Future of the First Amendment_, a study conducted by the Department of Public Policy at the University of Connecticut and commissioned by John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, concludes that today’s high school students fail to appreciate the freedoms of speech and press. Among the study’s key findings:
‘• Nearly three-fourths of high school students either do not know how they feel about the First Amendment or admit they take it for granted.
‘• Seventy-five percent erroneously think flag burning is illegal.
‘• Half believe the government can censor the Internet.
‘• More than a third think the First Amendment goes too far in the rights it guarantees.’
—Tolerance.Org

Yikes.

As educators around the country struggle to promote tolerance, diversity and harmony in their buildings, «Bush’s new education secretary is busy promoting exclusion, discrimination and divisiveness»:

‘Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings says she has no apologies to make for criticizing a PBS children’s series which features an episode with a lesbian family. Last week Spellings angered gays and lesbians when she said that many parents would not want children exposed “to such lifestyles” and accused the network of wasting public money (story) on the series, “Postcards From Buster.” The animated series was produced with money from the Department of Education. This week, Spellings said that gay issues are not appropriate topics for schools.
‘“On lifestyle issues, I think it’s appropriate for parents to deal with those and address those as they see fit, in their own way and in their own time,” Spellings said. “I believe that as a mother, and I believe that as a policy-maker. For the Department of Education or public broadcasting to get into things that are, you know, in a grayer area, is just not something we need to do.” Spellings said the education department would not get into issues such as whether gays and lesbians should be prevented from teaching, but, she said, it would get involved when federal tax dollars are being used.’
—_365Gay.Com

Sad to see the feds are undermining educational efforts as usual, this time in pursuit of extremist political ideology.

If you can …

‘If you can start the day without caffeine or pep pills,
‘If you can be cheerful, ignoring aches and pains,
‘If you can resist complaining and boring people with your troubles,
‘If you can eat the same food everyday and be grateful for it,
‘If you can understand when loved ones are too busy to give you time,
‘If you can overlook when people take things out on you when, through no fault of yours, something goes wrong,
‘If you can take criticism and blame without resentment,
‘If you can face the world without lies and deceit,
‘If you can conquer tension without medical help,
‘If you can relax without liquor,
‘If you can sleep without the aid of drugs,
‘If you can do all these things,
‘Then you are probably the family dog.’
—Unknown Author

‘Teaching is not a lost art, but the regard for it is a lost tradition.’
—Jacques Barzun

It was actually a pretty good week … because it was short. And I got all but one of the bills paid for the company I’m temping for, so that was an accomplishment. The one bill I didn’t get processed is truly messed up and will have to be untangled by others who know what’s going on.

A very nice lady from HR gave us a goody bag to toast the girls’ success in open enrollment. They were very nice and thoughtful and included me in it. It was very sweet. I promptly spilled orange soda on the white shirt when I got home; I hope it’s not ruined. They continue to be very nice people there, but still put up, from time to time, that Michigan sudden wall of reserve/distance. D never does; but she’s actually a native Californian.

Not pleasant dealing with money matters tonight; also not feeling the love where my grad school plans are concerned. Not sure if I should proceed; not from a crisis of confidence, but a crisis thats it’s going to cost $200-350 to pursue my plans. This is not good timing.

Meanwhile outside, it still continues to be this half-assed stuff. Winter is taking it’s sweet friggin’ time getting here. I’m sick of talking about it and anticipating it. I want blizzard. Now.

Not much else to say, ‘cept beagle and I continue our long nighttime walks around the complex. It should help both of us.

Have much to be thankful for tomorrow and we’ll have a little feast of our own. And people who say we’re not a family can bite my big white Okie rear. Screw ‘em.

Pithy stuff that I see on the walls of schools in which I guest teach:

‘We won’t stop …
… until every child is recognized as gifted and talented.
… until all content is presented in meaningful contexts.
… until imagination is the curriculum.
… until communities ask not what schools can do for them, but what they can do for schools.
… until teachers feel as comfortable with technology as kids do.
… until every kid loves to read.
… until kids care about each other’s success.
… until every teacher has a phone.
… until teacher lounges have wall-to-wall carpet, comfortable couches, phones, faxes, computers and really great cappuccino.
… until true achievement is not judged by bubble tests.
… until everyone feels they can make a difference.
… until every class is a teachable size (may we suggest 20?)
… until violence and guns are only studied as history in the classroom.
… until students realize that education is a privilege.
… until savage inequalities don’t exist.
… until teachers are treated as professionals.
… until teachers get credit for the amazing job they do with millions of kids every single day.
… until there’s a computer on every teacher’s desk.
… until every student writes his or her own life story, is proud of it and can see that the best chapters are yet to come.’
—Tom Snyder Productions Educational Technology

I especially like the ‘credit for the amazing job’ and others along that line.

Been awhile since an update. I’ve been incredibly busy; there’s allegedly a substitute shortage this year. And things have been fairly quiet, with odd moments of exasperation or downright anger.

It’s been a very good experience, very diverse. The majority of the jobs have been great, lots of fun. Some … well, I’m refusing to return to a few. Actually had to write a note to one teacher telling her that. More on those later. Actually, more on everything later, when I get a chance to list some of what’s happened in the last couple of months.

Lots of subbing has happened since my last update. I’ve heard there is a shortage of substitutes and that’s part of it; the other part is that I’m getting better known for reliability and willingness to work and being on time and so forth, I suppose. Or at least that’s what I want it to be.

Since my two-week-long middle school stint, I’ve been all over the place, from elementary Head Start to 9th grade social studies today at a southwest city high school. I’ve been back to some of my favorite places, revisited my least favorite place once and had some good moments and bad moments.

To the Editor of The Duncan Banner:

It was great to read the online version of the Banner article ‘Taylor Teaches TV’ [Mon. Oct. 11] by Jeff Kaley. I thank J.D. Taylor for graciously crediting me with creating D-10 TV, Duncan Public Schools Television and congratulate him on his many accomplishments and hard work in 10 years with channel 10. He’s awesome.

I was certainly not alone in those early years of building Channel 10 from the ground up, however. Former Duncan City Councilwoman Bobbie Clinkenbeard first approached us with the information and enthusiasm which made it possible; she also provided the impetus for the city to enforce its 1974 contract with TCI cablevision which allowed for public access television for Duncan’s schools. It was Bobbie’s research into public access and the city’s contract that allowed us to lay the foundation for what was to come. And it was Adrian Loflin at TCI who physically made the TV link happen.

It was Superintendent Jack Atchley who worked with Bobbie and myself to create DPS TV through his support, encouragement and enthusiastic embrace of the concept, as well as carefully carving out the needed funding from an already tight budget. And it was DHS Spanish teacher Diane Battles who first came up with the idea of the office of public information in the first place, during a meeting of Duncan’s teachers to discuss support of H.B. 1017 in May 1990. She felt (and I heartily agree) that the story of the Herculean efforts of public school teachers in general, and the many achievements of Duncan’s students in particular, needed to be told in the face of a political climate that increasingly devalues public schools and seeks their destruction. I am grateful for Mrs. Battles’ original idea and for Mr. Atchley giving me the opportunity and responsibility to put it into action. Also very instrumental in D-10’s success through their encouragement, inspiration and support were Phyllis Richie, elementary media director, and Wayne Long, finance wizard.

Certainly Duncan’s students were absolutely vital in helping me in the early years; the Emmy-winning (wow!) Jeremy Gossett, Ryan and Greg Korsgard and Chris Caldwell, in particular, as well as other students whose names escape me at the moment (please forgive me, Scott and others, you know who you are), as well as Janice Gay’s excellent journalism classes. D-10 was created for them and is a success because of them. They can be proud of their lasting legacy.

Duncan Public Schools Television premiered its first Duncan Demons football game on Channel 38 in November 1990. When I left Duncan in April 1994, it had broadcast football games, school plays, concerts and countless announcements. I was very honored to be associated with Duncan Public Schools and Channel 10, even on those 2 a.m., post-football-game long editing nights. I had a blast. It was intended to be a vital part of the school district’s effort to engage and inform the community in as many ways as possible. I am very proud of J.D. Taylor for realizing DPS’s original vision. Information is, as Thomas Jefferson said, ‘the currency of democracy,’ while Epictetus noted that ‘only the educated are free.’ Duncan should rightly be very proud of the accomplishments of J.D. Taylor and his crew over the last ten years. It is that sort of dedication and accomplishment that makes Duncan Schools among the very best.

And it is the fine example of Mr. Atchley, his administrators and Duncan’s teachers which so inspired me. Thanks to the influence they had on me as a student and an employee and the example they set, I am guest teaching in the Ann Arbor Public Schools, working on education communications projects and entering the University of Michigan’s master of arts in education with elementary certification program next June. If I turn out to be half the teacher that folks like Peggy Price, Cherie White, Allen Clinkscales, Marion Cunningham, June Richardson, Marion Robertson, Robin Robertson, Georgia and John Hopper, Larry David, Jimmy and Kevin Zinn, Gerald and Barbara Wheeler and so many others, then I will be a very happy guy. As Oklahoma’s own Frosty Troy once said, ‘I like to think that the greatest success of any life is that moment when a teacher touches a child’s heart and it is never again the same … Everything America is or ever hopes to be depends upon what happens in our schools’ classrooms.’

Steve Pollock
Ann Arbor, MI

(Education Reporter, The Duncan Banner, 1988-90; Director of Public Information and Communications, Duncan Public Schools, 1990-94)

Franklin Roosevelt said, “All we have to fear is fear itself. ” And Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “Knowledge is an antidote to fear.”

Taylor teaches through TV

The Duncan (OK) Banner
10/11/04
By Jeff Kaley

Just over 10 years ago, J.D. Taylor found himself at one of those crossroads in life.

Taylor was 35 and had been working for Halliburton since 1980. Starting first as a machinist, he had stayed ahead of the company’s layoffs and employee shifts during the period by going to college to learn a new skill.

“When the layoffs started at Halliburton in the mid-’80s, I enrolled in college at Cameron University. I started in 1984 and graduated in 1988 with a degree in radio and television,” Taylor now recalls.

Armed with a new trade, Taylor became a training instructor in manufacturing at Halliburton.

As part of the job, Taylor joined Rick Minter in producing training videos, and the two became quite proficient. So much so, “That the media and communications department at Halliburton thought I was competing with them, and they offered me a job in video production.”

The new job seemed to be going well. However, by the middle of 1994, personnel cutbacks were happening again at Halliburton’s operation in Duncan, and Taylor found himself at the crossroads.

His solution to that situation has turned out to be the right one for Duncan’s public school students and the community.

“In 1994, Halliburton began out-sourcing their video production and they offered me a job in Houston. I declined,” said Taylor. “I knew this job was open, and in August of ’94, I began working here.”

“Here” is the station manager’s office at the DPS Media Center. That’s where Taylor has spent the past decade turning DTV-10 on CableOne’s public access channel, into one of the state’s finest school-affiliated TV and video operations.

There’s plenty of evidence to the success of D-10 during Taylor’s tenure. There are four Marshall Gregory Awards that have been presented by the Oklahoma Education Association for the quality of the station’s programming. Since Red River Technology Center and CableOne went into partnership in 2004, 49 DHS students have been given an opportunity to work in the field of video production and media, and one, Jeremy Gossett, has already won an Emmy Award.

Backed by support from Duncan’s administration and armed with state-of-the-art equipment, D-10’s staff has filmed and broadcast hundreds of school-oriented events; from varsity football games to graduation ceremonies to middle school music performances to holiday parties in grade school classrooms.

Off campus, D-10’s production crews have voluntarily contributed by: coupling with the Duncan United Way to broadcast its annual fund-raising video; teaming with the Duncan Jaycees to produce its yearly auction; and spending the Labor Day holiday broadcasting the local Muscular Dystrophy Association Talent Show.

Turn to Channel 10 at any time and the screen is filled by a variety of announcements, most of which provide information about school scheduling and functions that are pertinent to school students and their parents. However, you’ll also find bulletins for Red River Technology Center activities, sign-up schedules for classes at Cameron University-Duncan and announcements for a variety of community-oriented events.

Taylor’s department has set a standard for high school-level video and media programs, and his personality has created learning and working conditions that prompt No. 1 assistant David Altom to say, “When I started working here in 2001, it was a very good day in my life.”

Taylor demurs when compliments are directed his way. The 45-year-old notes that many individuals and groups have provided the resources, input, equipment and opportunity that have turned D-10 into a success story.

“<strong>Steve Pollock</strong> actually started D-10 when he was public information director for the schools back in the early 1990s. He did a good job getting it started. I just added more equipment to make it more productive,” Taylor said, starting to pass around credit.

“The response from the students has been great,” he noted. “We only have six right now. One of them, Ryan Spaulding, works with David and me in fourth hour, and he’s been a great benefit to our department.

“This is an extracurricular program, and most of what we do is after school, but the kids have really shown an interest. Every year, I get kids wanting to join who I have to turn down because we’ve had to reduce staff and because new technology means we don’t need as many (student assistants).

“Red River Vo-Tech and Cameron-Duncan have been great supporters, and one of our biggest sponsors is Perkins Insurance and Realty. (Assistant Superintendent) Larry David has been great in getting us equipment and backing the program, and Terry Rowland and Curt Cooper are volunteer adult sponsors I know I can always count on.

“Not many realize how much David (Altom) does in this department, and Brandon Johnson has been invaluable help ever since he was a student.

“And anytime we need anything for putting a broadcast out, CableOne has always supplied us labor and parts with no expense to the school system. If it weren’t for them, we couldn’t broadcast with such a nice, clear picture.

“There are a lot of people and organizations that have made this work. It’s not just been me.”

In fact, it’s one of those star-crossed ironies that Taylor ever landed on the Duncan High School campus. His early background didn’t suggest Taylor would be in southern Oklahoma, running a school TV station.

Born in Harrisonburg, Va., Taylor spent childhood and teenage years following his father’s job across the country. The family lived in Virginia, Georgia, Mississippi, Texas and California, where Taylor spent his teen years on the beach.

His first exposure to Oklahoma was created by a “relative.”

“Uncle Sam is who brought me to Oklahoma. I quit high school and joined the Army when I was 17, and Uncle Sam sent me to Fort Sill,” he said.

“While I was in the Army, I was a truck driver supporting the 82nd Airborne Division. I drove the ‘cattle car,’ a 5-ton vehicle, and I drove protocol and buses.

“I ended up finishing high school while I was in the Army. In fact, I’ve got a diploma from Lawton High School, even though I’ve never been in that school building!”

After being discharged, Taylor thought he’d return to the West Coast and begin a career, but that inclination didn’t last long. Soon he was back in the Sooner State.

“When I got out of the service,” he recollected, “I went to California for three weeks. But I said, ‘Nope, this is not where I want to be.’

“I came back to Oklahoma and went to work at Halliburton.”

Taylor and Karen, his wife of nearly 25 years, became permanent residents of Duncan after he took the D-10 job in 1994. Their children, son Eric and daughter Ginger, are both Duncan High graduates, and there are no immediate plans to explore new terrain. J.D. Taylor may have shuffled around the country as a youngster, but Duncan and the school’s TV production program have become his home.

“The job means a lot of hours. You’re not just shooting video, you have to edit, put in sound and do playback. We try to cover as many events as possible, for the school and for non-profit organizations in the community, without spreading everybody out too thin,” he said.

“A lot of people say that it must be nice to have a job where you ‘play’ with new technology toys, but it’s work to me.”

And a very active future, it appears. The pace is quickening in a new school year, and Taylor and the D-10 crew are in constant motion.

There are ballgames to film, concerts on the horizon, Halloween and Thanksgiving parties coming up, and somebody has to post bulletins — lots of bulletins. Since the station installed a Powerpoint system two years ago, about 1,500 announcements have been broadcast.

Plus, Taylor noted, “This department also flows over to work in conjunction with the (Duncan High) technology department. We also work with intercoms, phones and the security system.

“We’re in the middle of completing a project in which we’ve been placing 32-inch monitors and/or DVD players with scan converts in classrooms, so the teachers can teach using a PC that will show up on the monitor.

“There’s a lot going on.”

Then Taylor grinned and added, “But I’ve got a really good job.”

It seems J.D. Taylor made the right decision when he came to that crossroad in 1994.

Seen somewhere on the ‘net:

‘On the first day of school, the Kindergarten teacher said, If anyone has to go to the bathroom, hold up two fingers.
A little voice from the back of the room asked: “How will that help?”’

Subfinder called me last night and offered me a two-day seventh grade social studies position at a middle school on the northwest side of the city. The teacher was on her way to the hospital.

I arrived Monday morning at 7:45 and was greeted nicely by everyone. It’s the first time I’ve been to this middle school; I’ve now visited four out of the five in the city.

The school’s scheduling is a bit weird; the first two hours are an academic block – the kids stay in the same classroom. The teacher then has the third hour off. The fourth hour is an Ann Arbor thing called ‘advisory,’ a short period of 20 minutes during which kids can get advice and work on assignments for other classes. This is followed by a fifth hour (which this teacher has off) and lunch. Another academic block follows, and the day ends with a 45-minute elective period. This teacher is responsible for an elective called WWOW — Wonderful World of Words. The students work on spelling, vocabulary, etc., using games such as Scrabble and Boggle and many other methods. The academic block periods alternate classes on a Monday-Wednesday/Tuesday-Thursday basis. In other words, there is one set of kids in first/second hours on M/W and a different set on T/Th.

The first hour Monday was noisy; the teacher was caught by surprise and there really wasn’t enough for the kids to do, so the noise levels rose. There was lots of chaos as I tried to keep 30 kids on individual paths. Finally I resorted to breaking out Boggle for two groups of boys, even though it really wasn’t kosher for the geography hour.

I went home for lunch, then came back for a nightmare of a class. Very noisy, disrespectful and rude; I thought I was back at Scarlett. One girl claimed I called her a cow, even though I was referring to the collages on the bulletin board. I took them through an oral quiz; they knew surprisingly a lot about current events, etc. Still, the less said about that two hours, the better.

This was followed by the very quiet and nice WWOW class, which was balm to my head. Three girls played Boggle and three boys played Text Twister on the computer. I was able to get caught up on these entries.

And there’s at least one more day of this tomorrow, which is yet another day in public education.

I was called during the evening to sub at the alternative high school, beginning at 8 a.m. the next day. When I showed up, the building was largely empty, with just a few people lined up for ESL signup. When I got to the secretary’s office, the head of the sub system was on the phone for me and told me that school there didn’t even start for a week; there had been a mix-up. However, she did have a four-day teacher assistant assignment with the first grade at a southwest city elementary school. Perfect.

I went to the elementary school and it was a wonderful experience. The kids were very sweet and it was total fun, especially recess. I enjoy the elementary routine; I may have flip-flopped back to being happy with being in the elementary master’s program rather than the secondary, mainly because of my experience with the middle schools. I enjoy high school to a degree, but found myself really into the younger kids as I watched them learn and develop and have fun, which is very important to the educational process.

All four days I was there, the staff and teachers and kids were great. A diametrically opposite experience from what I experienced at a certain unnamed elementary in southeast Ann Arbor last February.

Work in math was done with pennies and other objects so they could further develop their counting skills. The teacher uses individual slates so they can practice their writing. This makes things really dusty.

We read to them and they read themselves, individually and in groups. There was group reading, reading along with tape-recorded books and silent reading. They practiced writing and drawing in journals and in handwriting books.

One of the first projects was to fill in the blanks on a sheet and make a drawing representing the sentence. Based on ‘John wore his red shoes,’ each child had to fill in his/her name and choose a color and article of clothing. I.e., ‘[Name] wore his/her [color] [clothing].’

One child asked me if his was correct. He had written ‘John wore his red shit.’ I had to gently suggest that he sound out the word ‘shirt’ and rewrite it properly, since these papers were going home to their parents. Didn’t want a parent to freak out and come to the school screaming, ‘What are you teaching my child??!!’

There was an assortment of skinned knees on the playground, requiring bandaging. The biggest annoyance was that they had individual water bottles, which are refilled at the water fountain at the back of the room. The bottles were a constant battle and very distracting.

There was some chaos on my first day when it came time to board the buses. One bus was delayed when a special ed student’s mother wasn’t home yet and the bus had to wait at the house for her. It threw the entire schedule off by a good 30 minutes. I waited out front with the kids until it came and they were on their way.

I was able to leave my sub # with the office and media center and in the teachers’ lounge. I hope they call me as often as they can.

I also filled out an application for a teacher’s assistant position they have there. It would be perfect, if I can at least get an interview.

All four days were just great, and I look forward to returning there soon. It was a wonderful start to the new school year and not too stressful on my hands.

It’s a new school year and time to re-fire-up this ‘blog. My hands have prevented me from updating my ‘blogs over the last couple of months and it’s been totally aggravating. I’m not used to being all crippled up.

But things are looking up after a doctor’s visit, even though there is no definitive diagnosis yet. I’ll get a firmer answer at the end of October. In the meantime, it’s back to school time.

With a great deal of sadness and regret, I withdrew from grad school classes yesterday morning, deferring my enrollment/involvement with the program until next June.

I’ve had tendonitis for 3-5 years now and had surgery on my left wrist in Sept-01. Things haven’t been too bad since, because I don’t hold/grip pens and write—I type. But the pain in my wrists/hands has been growing ever since I started taking undergrad courses to get ready for grad school and started writing things by hand extensively. At one point, during my summer math grad class in mid-June, the pain was so bad and distracting I almost hit a guardrail driving back from Ypsilanti on I-94.

I ignored it as much as possible and pretended things were fine. But they’re not. Truth is, I’m 40 and my tendons are shot and I don’t like it or want to admit it, but I have a problem. When grad school started full-bore last week, each day was more painful than the last. I also tripped and fell on my right arm and that certainly didn’t help. I ended up passing out in the middle of the night a week ago and then in the doctor’s office last Friday morning being pushed, prodded, pained and poked. Now, I’ll be starting physical therapy next Wednesday to try to get things back in order, as well as assessing what has to be done beyond therapy.

As for grad school, it was an extremely difficult decision to make, but after consultation with Frank and doctors, therapists and others, a battery of tests and x-rays, (not to mention a great deal of pain), I was forced to conclude that pushing further into a very stressful grad school program put me at risk of permanent damage to my wrist and hand. So I reluctantly have to put forward some different priorities; I’ll take care of my right arm first, keep on substitute teaching when I can in the Ann Arbor Public Schools, and rejoin the program next June if everything is back in order. I also may pursue my master’s in a distance learning environment or something like that.

To say that I’m disappointed and upset is an understatement; it’s been a very miserable week. But life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans. My chief regret is that I will miss going through the program with each of the wonderful people I met in the last week, the most wonderful ladies I’ve been privileged to meet in such a very long time. They’ll make great teachers and have a blast over the next year and I wish them all the best luck in the world.

I’ll admit that the program (like most) wasn’t exactly perfect; in the first week alone, there were some issues/stances with which I didn’t necessarily agree:
Spelling, punctuation and grammar were said to take a back seat to self-esteem. Grad school language abounded. There were some serious disconnects with reality. Classroom management and discipline were to be apparently learned by osmosis. The two cohorts were going in two very separate directions; Detroit had a huge load of work while we didn’t. Detroit already knew what schools they were being assigned to, we weren’t going to find out for a month. And those are just the superficial differences.

Comparing what I was hearing in the program with the reality I’ve seen in the last six months of subbing for AAPS, well, there was quite a cognitive dissonance going on, and the bottom line was that I was beginning to wonder whether $60,000 in debt was going to be actually worth it. I guess I’ll never know.

For now, I’m already pre-registered as a sub for next year, and that’s what I’ll do, while exploring opportunities to build up my communications consulting again, which is really what I intended to do after getting my master’s. I’ll still explore opportunities to get my master’s in an alternative way.

So this ‘blog is not going away. It’ll become the further adventures of Super Sub after school resumes in August.
In the meantime, therapy and pain management and uncertainty. Yeesh.

It’s over. Orientation is done with and the full extent of the huge Matterhorn before us that we are about to ascend was revealed.

I’m a bit too tired and sleepy to go over the finer points of what’s to come; suffice it to say that there are good times and good learning ahead, there are some tough moments that we’ll have to fight through and in the end we’ll be happy we survived the year.

Two of my friends from the summer math class were assigned to the Detroit cohort so I won’t be seeing them as regularly after today, but we spent the afternoon together, running over to the library to register for our classes then going to the computer sales office in the Union to look at new computers for one whose computer crashed last weekend. So the afternoon was fun, even if the morning was a bit daunting. Some thoughts:

• Adding the English as a Second Language (ESL) endorsement is something I want to do but I fear that it’s just more than my physical endurance can handle. It takes up Friday afternoons all this fall and I believe I’m going to need those Fridays to rest and read and write. I probably won’t take on the ESL program. Plus, it leaves less time for pushing my potential pet research project: integrating blogging into the classroom.

• The Detroit cohort already knows what school they are assigned to and what grade they will be teaching. We won’t know until late July/early August. I think that’s a handicap. Our director wants time to more carefully match us with a cooperating teacher and fellow cohort student. I see her point, but I hate the uncertainty of facing the prospect that I might end up having that long commute to Wayne/Westland. I already know the two schools who participate her in Ann Arbor and I especially like one of them. There are some relationships there already in place and that can be valuable, especially early on. One needs every advantage one can get.

• One thing struck me when listening to the recent graduates of the program who came in to talk to us: They stressed taking time for yourself and not beating yourself up and making sure you don’t be an obsessive-compulsive perfectionist. You will not survive. Some of them admitted that they didn’t read every single page of their assignments, especially if things just got a bit much. This is all advice that I know, but it’s very hard for me to put it into practical usage. I want to be perfect at things even though I know I’m far from it.

• Financial aid is screwed up. They want us to spend hundreds of dollars of books and wait for the disbursement check from our loans. Meanwhile, the professors are already assigning reading for books that I can’t afford to buy yet. I asked if the check could be picked up (it can’t) and the lady told me that I could just go ahead and pay for them and then use the check as a reimbursement. Pay for them with what, lady??!! Money doesn’t grow on trees at my house. We’re struggling grad school students now and we don’t have a spare $300 bucks lying around to buy friggin’ textbooks because the university bureaucracy can’t speed up the process. Yeesh. I know that’s an old complaint, but really. Jeez, guys.

• Orientation told me a couple of new things, but not much. I have to get in there and get my feet wet to really know what’s going on. It was good to meet everyone else and BS a lot, which has value, but, c’mon, let’s get on with it!
• Everyone is very nice and supportive. There are lots of resources to help make you successful. But I’ll still bet they’re hellish when they get behind the wheels of their SUVS …

• This is grad school and we’re all adults and we call professors by their first names, which was <em>verboten</em> in my undergrad school, where we said, “Dr. Smith” or “Dr. Jones.” This feels a bit weird and vaguely disrespectful. Or is my southern heritage showing again?

All in all, a good day, if long. Registration went well for everything but the Math class, thanks to a screwup in the math department, which is supposed to be fixed tomorrow. And yes, I am the lone, single, only male in the AA/WW cohort. There are three in Detroit. I’m so special …

Speaking of tomorrow, I better get some sleep.

Good night, y’all!

So, this is it. Grad school begins in earnest this week. Orientation is Tuesday at 8:30, followed by first classes all day Wednesday and Thursday. We’re off, mercifully, all day on Friday. Not a bad first week; could be much worse.

The two-week Summer Math course I took earlier this month was an excellent preparation for what’s about to happen. It eased me back into the college classroom after an 18-year absence, helped me begin to adjust to keeping regular hours (which I haven’t had to do in three-and-a-half years) and I made an A in the course to boot. We’re having a party Monday evening at the School of Ed to celebrate the accomplishment … one last collective breath before the big plunge.

My feelings are a bit mixed on the whole thing. As usual, I hate starting new things, new routines, new people, new requirements. I hate being strait-jacketed into schedules. The adjustment is always the killer part for me.

But once the initial period is over in a couple of weeks, I’ll be fine. Chafing at the bit over how much homework we’ll have and how long it takes to do, probably, but I’ll be alright.

Because it is, after all, in service to a noble cause, as they say. Afterwards, I’ll be much better off personally (if not financially) and the kids who might be my students in the future will benefit as well.

I’m looking forward to certain parts of it; not so much the college classes — they seem like a necessary evil — but getting into the elementary classroom and getting my hands dirty. I’m looking forward to getting my bike and thus improving my fitness and health. I’ll benefit from all the extra activity. I will enjoy meeting new people and making new friends. And I will especially enjoy graduation.

In some ways, the year ahead seems really long; but this time last year, I was about to visit Ann Arbor to look for a place to live, and it seems like it’s been a very quick year since. It will go by fast, I’m sure.

I’ve already met some of my cohort members, who were also in the Summer Math class. Pam and Kira are great ladies and we should have fun this year.

It’s like we’re about to climb in the cars at the roller coaster station and we’re looking ahead and seeing this huge first hill, followed by stomach-churning twists and turns. The butterflies and sweaty palms are in evidence. We know that over the course of the roller coaster track, there will be plenty of fun and excitement and good times, but there will also be some nastiness, too.

I just hope I don’t lose my lunch.

… grad school hours, that is (I need 45 to graduate).

The switchover to «TextDrive» and my first grad school class have meant that this journal has been moribund for over six weeks. No more.

There’s lots to update; my final weeks of substitute teaching in Ann Arbor Public Schools, the weirdness of undergrad classes via BYU distance learning and my first grad school class ever, in which, I am very proud to report, I earned an A.

Then there’s the upcoming week: On Tuesday, orientation for the ELMAC program, followed by a full-slate of classes Wednesday and Thursday … the full-monty is coming.

I’ll leave things for now, however, and update more later. I’m restoring bits and pieces of all the AirBeagle sites and trying to get them all done by Tuesday. Thanks for dropping by!

I posted the following over at «aSquared AirBeagle», but it’s also very apropos for this section as well:

Frank pointed out the cover of Section E ‘Connection’ of tonight’s Ann Arbor News (Motto: ‘_Still_ the World’s Worst Website). Headlined Highs and Lows of Clothes (ain’t that alliterative?), it’s a discussion of how, for today’s teen girl, ‘less is more.’ I think he regrets bringing it home. It provoked a longish rant, which you’re now going to have to suffer through like him.

Having spent yesterday at a southwest AA high school, I can attest that, for the girls anyway, less is indeed the style. One class had female students who made the denizens of the Blue Moon Brothel of Winnemucca, Nevada, look overdressed, and I had the passing thought: ‘Do your mothers know you dress like cheap whores?’

Okay, it may not be nice or PC or appropriate or whatever, but, quite frankly, neither was the way these kids were dressed.

Now, I’m no prude (as Frank will tell you); wear what you want. I’ve always guffawed when principals and superintendents tried to battle miniskirts and anti-Bush t-shirts by saying they ‘disrupt the educational process.’ No, the educational process is disrupted by collections for Ronald McDonald House and please let these students out of class to go on the field trip to Cedar Point and religious fundamentalist fooling with textbooks and No Child Left Behind and so on and so on and so on.

I saw nothing wrong with miniskirts back in my day; being of a different … orientation … they did nothing for me, or to me, even though they drove the parents and administrators of the 60s and 70s nuts. And now, well, as long as I don’t have to see anybody’s … nether regions, I don’t much care.

My angle, then as now, is just that it shows a complete lack of respect for self, as well as a great deal of ignorance about a whole host of things, not least of which is how they’re manipulated by the industry.

In other words, you wanna dress like the two-bit whores I saw near DuPont Circle my first time in Washington, DC, many years ago, well, go ahead, but … well, you’re gonna look like a two-bit DuPont Circle whore, who’s a slave to fashionistas who seem to enjoy the heroin-wasted, anorexic … whore look.

Is that the image you want to project? Particularly when you’re just 16 and still in high school? Better question: Is that the image you want your daughter to project if you’re a parent?

A mother quoted in the News article says:

‘I struggle with that all the time. How do I get her to feel good about herself? Boys are a focus for them at that age … How do I make her understand … that dressing quote unquote ‘hot’ doesn’t always give you what you want?’

Pause to reach for the Pepto. Excuse me? How do you get her to feel good about herself? How about by not allowing her to go to school dressed like one of Seymour Butts’ actresses?

And dressing ‘hot’ doesn’t give you what you want?! Sorry, sweetie, but it gives you exactly what you want … and more. And the latter half of that is the problem.

Interesting that this mother’s daughter attends … of course, the very high school I guest taught at yesterday. And mommy, who asks the clueless question above, not only lets her kid go to school dressed in short skirts and sometimes midrif-baring skimpy shirts, also has allowed her to be photographed and splashed big-as-life in the News.

But apparently, she’s the soul of discretion; she doesn’t show her belly every day. And her mother says she terms her dress on the ‘conservative side.’

Of course, the News puts the teenager from Ypsilanti on the inside of the section and in a much smaller photo; that’ll put them Ypsi people in their place. Still, the Ypsi entry is showing more cleavage than the Grand Canyon and wearing hip-hugging jeans that I last saw at my sister’s high school graduation ceremony in 1974, looking just as scruffy and dirty as they did back then.

Let me hasten to be clear here: I’m not calling any of these girls whores or questioning their virtue. Just their judgment and self-respect. Not to mention the cluelessness and lack of judgment of their mothers.

I’ve been saying a lot lately (and I’m sure Frank will get tired of hearing it over the next year of grad school) that I as a teacher will have no problem being held accountable for how my students perform on standardized testing when parents in the American empire start being held accountable for how their students dress, act, treat each other and their teachers and whether or not they come to school well-fed, well-clothed, having been kissed good bye, told they are loved and given every opportunity possible to come to school ready to learn.

When we can institute a system of parental accountability, I’ll be more than happy as a teacher to take personal responsibility for my students.

Until then, at least teach your kids to respect their elders (especially substitute teachers) and don’t dress your daughters like Las Vegas hookers.

If I had a teenage daughter, we would SO be having a fight right now …