Let’s start with parents…. What is our job in the education process?  Do we get involved? Do we let our kids sink or swim on their own? I have conflicting ideas of the role of parents.  As a parent, my instinct is to say that I want to be involved.  I want to know what and how my kids are doing in class.  However, my kids are starting to get old.  At some point they need to survive on their own.  Then what is my role?  Do I just sit back and let them take care of everything? Part of me hates giving up control.

On the other side of the coin, what do teachers want of parents?  (Author’s bias: I taught primarily high schoolers, so that’s who I base my ideas off of)  Parents should be limited in their involvement in day to day school business.  I have a great resentment to the so-called helicopter parents.  Do they trust teachers?  My opinion: no, they don’t.

At some point we, as a nation, need to let go.  We have to give over trust to the experts.  All the editorials and education plans I’ve read in the past year in some part blame teachers for problems.  Supposedly we have too many bad teachers.  If that’s the case, fine, get rid of the bad teachers.  But even if they did that and got “good” teachers into positions, parents who still not give over control and trust to them.  We, as a nation, are too used to the Burger King philosophy “Have it your way.”  Not everything can be personalized.  Education is in some respects generalized.  We need a standard, all students need to learn certain things, then we can get more personalized.  But that’s the kind of Burger King philosophy parents adhere to.  They don’t want what’s best for their child, but what they think they want.  It’s like ordering a Whopper with extra cheese, mayo, and extra meat… not what you should really be eating but what you want at the time.  Will that burger help you 30 years from now when you develop heart disease?  No it won’t, but we cannot deny ourselves.  It works the same way in education.  At some point we need to let go of control.

Teachers need to focus on teaching and parents need to focus on parenting at home, teaching their kids values, behavior, manners, and loving them.  Leave the reading, ‘riting, and ‘rithematic to teachers.

And don’t even get me started on nonexistent parents…

We (humans) are horrible about paying attention when other people are talking.  Either we get distracted, like squirrels and shiny objects or are thinking about what we are going to say next.  This gets even worse when we try to disseminate information through paper contact or emails.  Either people get a bunch of pointless information or we never receive the good stuff at all.

I have been on the receiving and giving end of this problem.  As a teacher, I had a write many an email to parents and other teachers.  I try to write in a bullet style… get the info as quickly and as efficiently as possible.  However, I have learned people don’t like that style, too impersonal.  It’s even worse when I had to call parents and discuss their students.  Usually those phone calls were becase the student failed to do something.  So I would get on the phone and make some stupid small talk and then… “Well, the reason I called was…” and they stop listening.

As a parent, the information I need never gets home correctly.  I have to resort to questioning my 7 year olds, which does not go well.  I know what I hear is not what the kids heard in the first place.  It’s like the telephone game kids played in the 1950s.  Teachers should know that anything that my kids hear goes in one ear and straight out the other.  (This also is true of teenagers, college students, and adults).  Likewise, any paper note disappears in their backpacks, just like the there’s a black hole in the bottom.  Things go in but never come back out.

So how do we streamline our communication in education?  My dream is that everyone could be like me… straight and to the point, bullet point emails.  If we want to make small talk we can, but only if we want to, not because we need to get information across.  Actually let’s take this approach for all of life.  Bullet points, unless we want to make small talk, then fine, we make small talk.

Otherwise any communication coming across is like playing the telephone game… “You need to send $2.00 in next week for the field trip.” becomes “Our hamster is having babies.”

About a month ago, I had a student come up to my desk during worktime.

“I have a question to ask you…”

“Okay, what is it?”

“Well, it’s something I heard, and I knew you would give me an honest answer.  But it’s an awkward question.”

“Just ask me, I don’t get embarrassed remember.”

“Okay here goes… are you pregnant?”

(me laughing hysterically)

“Of course not. Where did you hear that?”

“Just students talking…”

This encounter didn’t phase me.  All I wanted to know was where the rumor started.  Was I having a fat day?  Did someone overhear a conversation about babies and assume?  I never did find out the origin of the pregnancy rumor.  Fortunately, the rumor wasn’t hurtful or damaging.  I even found it rather funny.  For the next couple of weeks, students would ask me silly questions about the “baby.”  “When’s it due?” “Do you know the sex?”  “What about a name?”  We made it a game.

Unfortunately most rumors are no where near this harmless.  They are mean and spiteful meant to damage someone’s reputation.  The students at my school are no different.  You can label kids “good” and “Christian” all you want, but they are still going to gossip and spread rumors.  In fact, I believe its human nature.  Part of our desire to seek out social acceptance.  We shift the negative focus to someone else.  We then become the valuable source of information about others, thus making us popular in social circles.  And don’t even try to tell me that you’ve never participated in gossip and rumors.  We all have.

As a teacher, this becomes a sticky subject.  How do we stop student gossip and rumors when we also engage in it? 

The teachers at my school are not strangers to the Rumor weed.  They love to discuss other teachers’ and student lives.  Stories circulate around the lunch table every day.  Most of the time, the information is harmless… this person is having a grand baby or they got a new car.  Nothing you could call malicious… but then every once in a while it takes a turn.

The same is true of the students.  Most of the time they are fine, just socializing with friends.  And then someone says something malicious about another student.  So how do we handle this?

Thankfully students don’t usually engage in this behavior in my classroom, but this year’s seniors were an odd bunch.  Friends but not really friends, more like frenemies.  Often during work times, they would start talking about one topic and move on to how this student is weird or did you see their clothes today?  When I called out students about their talk, they usually responded with “But I was just kidding around… They (the student being talked about) know that.  We kid Ms. B, it’s what we do.”  How do I respond to that?  Do I yell at them for being horrible friends and really horrible human beings?  Do I left them off the hook because it’s just kidding?  Do I throw them out of class for that kind of talk? 

I am really at a loss about what to do with rumors.  The bible teacher had a series of lectures and discussions about the topic.  I know he meant well, but the students just made fun of him behind his back.  Obviously a heart to heart was not the answer to correcting the behavior.  For now, I will just call students out on their talk when it happens. 

Maybe if someone starts a rumor about them, said gossipers would see the error of their ways and stop.  “Hey did you hear about _____?  You didn’t… let me tell you about them. I just heard….”

I am sure other teachers have the same problems with reviewing and tests.   My general philosophy about tests is that they should be an assessment of the high/important points from the chapter.  I try to make my tests hard, but not too hard.  Give them a challenge, but not focus on the nit picky details.  During note time, I tend to tell side stories or trivia facts about the topic.  To me those make the class interesting and for those students really interested in the topic learn a bit more than just the basic facts.  But I hardly ever test on those things.  I want to make sure my students focus on the big ideas, the whys, not necessarily focus on the asides. 

Once we get close to test day, I usually pass out a study guide consisting of the big terms, people, events.  It usually only takes up a half sheet of paper with two columns of words.  the idea is for the student to go home and be able to say something important about each word on the study guide.  I don’t require students to turn in a completed study guide or outline notes.  To me that’s just busy work for juniors and seniors.  Does that help anybody?  I see it as more grading work for me with no benefit for the students. 

The day before the test, we play jeopardy review.  Students play individually but for teams with the winning team earning candy.  I find Jeopardy to be a great way to hit many of the high points for the upcoming test and students like the review, but especially the candy part.  Students usually get to use their study guides for Jeopardy and many jot down answers or questions while we play.  I have had many tell me the process works for them to narrow their focus from the chapter.

Unfortunately at least once a Jeopardy session, I ask someone a questions and they respond with “but that’s not on the study guide.”  I never claimed that everything they needed to know appears on the study guide.  It’s meant as a guide, not an answer key.  What makes some of these students think that I am there to give them the answers?  I am here to facilitate their learning; guide them on the path to their own discoveries.  If they just want the answers, they can look in the textbook.  I an not interested in that type of education.

At some point, students need to wake up and understand the purpose of review sessions.  Until then I will continue to use Jeopardy and those students who understand will continue to benefit.  The rest will say “but that’s not on the study guide” and I will just give them a silent look.  They all tell me I’m good at the look, but I guess I will continue to get practice at perfecting the look.

Our school, like many I have seen or heard about, has a no tolerance policy about electronic devices, specifically IPODs and cell phones.  I love the rule.  Students are here for school not to text to their friends or listen to music.  Oh sure when I was in school I was known to sneak my Discman (yes I am of that generation) and listen to a single CD throughout the day.  I realize that was not the way to approach the situation, but hey I was a teenager.  Taking my personal experience, I can see the lure of cell phones and music, but some days I want to take those devices and stomp on them.  Last week was one of those weeks.  

I have been known to catch my fair share of electronic devices, usually in the hallway.  Students try to be sneaky, but really it’s pretty obvious.  Staring at the floor off to the side of your desk or your arm in a coat or hoodie pocket just screams “Look at me I am doing something against the rules.”  To me all this just points to disrespect to the teachers, the school, other students, and even to themselves.  Intrinsic motivation for learning is not present when students focus on texting or listening to music. 

Having stated my position on the devices, I found myself in a dilemma the other day.  A student came up to me during study hall (do not even get me started on study halls, it was not my choice to supervise) and asked if he could listen to his IPOD.  Of course I said no, to which he asked the eternal question “Why?”  Much to my surprise, I did not have a good answer and so replied “Because.”  “Because”  is a ridiculous answer to any question and the student knew it.  He continued to ask why and I struggled with a good reason.  I had an answer if this occurred during U.S. history or Economics, but this was study hall.  Personally I know I study better with some light music in the background.  I sympathized with the student, but ultimately decided that I had to uphold the rule even if it was problematic. 

Where do we draw the line on these kinds of issues?  Blanket rules seem to cause problems, but so do degrees and uncertanty of rules.  How do we police the use of electronic devices that we know the students (and most of use teachers have) but still uphold the concepts of personal freedom and educational diversity? 

The art room has a open use of IPODs during class periods.  Every art teacher that I have known has discussed with me the benefits of having music on during class to jump start student creativity.  So if the art classes can listen to them, why can’t my study hall student listen to them?   I still cannot come up with a good answer to this conundrum, so for now I will just answer with “It’s a rule and I enforce the rules.”

I think all teachers (at least teachers of high school social studies) run into the question of political openness.   How open should we be as teachers?  I have been in many classes and met many teachers who have no problem discussing their personal politics with students.  I have even been in classes where teachers openly try to sway students to the teacher’s political thinking.  On the other hand, I have also been in classes where teachers avoid discussing politics at all costs.  Where should we stand on the spectrum of openness??

I take a stand in my classes closer to silence than complete transparency.  In teaching government, I often discuss controversial topics in politics, but try to walk a fine line.  Many students ask, but I never openly tell them of my personal politics.  In the same vein, I try to not let my personal politics color the teaching of political issues.  Being human, that is not completely possible, but I try.  My feeling is that even telling them my politics is either seen as a way to sway students to my politics, or a point of contention and division amongst the class.

If the media accurately reflects American society, then we are all divided between red and blue states.  Going further, the two sides are in constant conflict and competition.  But is this really the case?  I recently showed a documentary about the issue in government class.  Titled Split: A Divided America, the documnetarian went on a quest throughout America searching for this supposed divide.  And what did he find?  Lots of contradictions, less anger than the media would lead you to believe, and many reds and blues working together to better the country.  After showing the video, I asked my students for general responses.  The students really seemed to like it and it opened their eyes to many issues in American politics and society.  Many of them came to the conclusion that the red/blue divide was overblown in the media and not at wide of a divide as many people often think. 

Even after an interesting discussion over an interesting documentary, I still do not feel comfortable discussing my personal politics with my students.  Where should I stand on the issue?  

Let me give you another example that complicates the matter.  Last year to celebrate the upcoming Presidential election, students made campaign signs, studied the candidates, and then participated in a mock all school election.  As predicted by me, McCain overwhelmingly won in the mock election, but Obama had a strong showing.  The results did not surprise me, but did notbother me either.  That is how the students voted.  However, I was concerned by issues and events surrounding the election.  My kindergartners came home one day to tell me “Obama is a baby killer.”  “WHAT?!?!?  Who did you hear this from”  I learned that a student on the playground was spreading this around to others.  First of all, I don’t care about the specific political issue, my children should not be learning anything about abortion or any other inappropriate topic for their age.  Second, the statement is flat out wrong.  I don’t ever recall Obama promising to kill babies and the like if elected President. (Regardless of your political affiliation, being pro-choice is not “baby killing.”  That is simplistic and ignorant of the issues involved.)  Third, according to my children and others that I asked, a few teachers overheard this conversation and did nothing to stop it.  This incident made me wonder more about the place of politics in schools.  I don’t care what the personal politics of the teachers are, my children should not be subject to lies and inappropriate speech at school.   Although I have nothing to back up this conclusion, I believe that the teachers who overheard truly believed the statement and therefore did nothing to stop the conversation, even though I would think that most would agree that the topic of conversation was inappropriate for 6 yearolds. 

After being in a school for three years, I think I have come to the conclusion that a teacher’s personal politics have no place in the classroom.  I try to encourage students to think about controversial topics  and make a decision for themselves, but never pressure them one way or another or make them tell me their position.  That is their right as a free American citizen.  As much as I would love my students to think like me politically, that should not be a goal in my teaching.  I need to lead them to their own path, even if it diverges from mine.  That is the key to teaching: leading them not pulling them.  Students, especially seniors, need to start to flush out their own beliefs and values.  I only encourage my students to think and then to get involved in the community.  Whether that is working for a political party or volunteering in the soup kitchen, I think the message helps bring everyone together working for a better society. 

So maybe there is a place for personal politics in the classroom, but for now, I will try to remain as neutral as a can be and encourage participation and thinking in my students.

During this school year, two teachers have been “let go” without so much as a word of warning or explanation.   Now being at a private school, maybe we deal with things differently than tax payer funded, teacher union connected public schools.  But I ask, does this process serve anyone, or just shove the issues under the rug?

Let’s start with the first techer:

I have no knowledge of the official reasons for the person not being a teacher at my school anymore, however I have pieced together the following information.  One day after school, there was an altercation with this teacher’s child (who is also a student at the school) and the teacher in front of other parents, students, and teachers.  Supposedly the teacher was asked not to return.  The next day not a word was spoken to the students or teachers about what happened or the plan to cope and move forward.  Wild rumors about drug use and pornography circled through the student body.  At some point in the day, teachers received an email telling us to not comment about the situation or let students discuss the situation in class.  Pretty hard standards when a) we know nothing and b) teens love to gossip.  This incident occurred over three months ago and we still do not have any answers. 

On the second incident (today):

The teacher in question was here yesterday and not here today.  End of story so far.  Now we have been having some financial struggles and many are upset about the handling.  However, I have not heard of any teacher talking of quitting.  What makes this difficult is that the teacher in question was my co-sponsor.  Students have been bringing up the situation all day and I cannot question, speculate, discuss, or tell them anything as again we have been told not to.  Besides none of the teachers know anything at this point. A few students have alluded that they know the reason, but have not shared anything with me. 

All of the secrecy is detrimental and that’s bad enough, but what about the former teachers’ classes.  In the first instance, the school rehired a teacher who taught accounting and business last year and was furloughed during an economic crisis.  The new teacher has reinstituted a computer curriculum and improved on the output of those students.  Congratulations for the making the situation better.  In the new incidence, a substitute will be covering classes for the rest of the week and then….  no one knows.  The school certainly does not have money to hire a full time teacher, but the former teacher had a full load of classes each day.  What will become of the students?   I have a special place in my heart for these students (many are my sponsor kids) and cannot forsee how they will catch up with the curriculum.  What makes this even sadder is those students probably won’t realize how far behind they are in the subject until they get to college in two years. 

So how do we proceed?

Let me offer a few suggestions. 

1. Hire better teachers in the first place.  Both former teachers were well documented among colleagues and students that they did not teach or even challenge students.  I am not the best teacher in the world, but I try to make the most of the time in class and try to challenge my students to reach the next level on every project, test, assignment, etc.

2. If problems arise, take care of them quickly before they become wide reaching problems.  If there is an issue, unless it is something against the law (drug use, sex with students, etc.), try to deal with it through intervention, suspension even.  In both cases, I think there was a final straw and then firing, when the issues could have been handled in a civil manner earlier in time.

3. If a teacher must be let go, have a story prepared.  I don’t mean to say air all the dirty laundry and share every bit of information.  Do have a statement for the students, parents, and especially teachers.  We all came to school today expecting a normal day, and then the email came through with no explanation, but a gag order.

4. Have back up plans for classes.  This one applies to the administration but also to teachers.  Administration should have a contingency plan in the event of an absence, quitting, or firing of a teacher.  Do we have readily available substitutes, or resumes from teachers would have previously applied for jobs?  The staff vacancy should be filled as soon as possible to salvage the classes.  For teachers, a note on advance planning.  I have a lesson plan book in which I write the basic schedule for upcoming chapters and any large projects.  Now I do not write out detailed plans, but could tell anyone who asks where I want to be chapter and project wise for any given week.  In case I become ill or must leave school for any reason, the lesson plan book stays on my desk for easy reach.  I also have all my resources for various subjects organized by class and chapter.  Anyone could walk into my class, pick up the Ch. 10 folder, pull out a copy of my lecture notes, grab an assignment master, and create a lesson play for the day.  I highly doubt either of the teachers in question had any type of organization method such as mine, but if they did, it could help.

Of course these suggestions are from a lowly teacher with no formal training in organization or administration, but don’t they sound nice?   I hope this situation can be resolved soon, but fear that it will get even more confusing in the next few days.  Rumors will swirl, emotions will run high, and no learning will be done in the former teacher’s classes.  During this time, I will keep the teacher on the back of the milk carton and hope someone has information to help lead to him and the truth of the disappearance.

•   8-9am — gave a final to one student that took 20 minutes, then watched Shrek
• 9:05-10:10 – supervised study hall, then watched Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
• 10:15-11:45 — watched Elf (one of 4 movies the middle and high schoolers could choose to watch)
• 11:50-12:20 – ate lunch
• 12:25-12:55 — made gingerbread houses
• 1-2:30 — watched The Santa Clause III (one of 4 movies they could choose)
• 2:35-3:00 — Christmas Chapel in the gym

Looking over this schedule, can anyone tell me what’s missing?   Wait, say it all together — EDUCATION !!!!!!!

The state of Indiana mandates 180 days for school to be in session.  It does not necessarily mandate what we do during those days.  So we get days like today, lots of fluff and no real education.  I find myself wondering why I am actually at school on days like this.  I am a glorified babysitter.  That is not why I got into teaching. 

Overall I think the problem is our mindset.  Many (students, teachers, administrators, parents) feel like the days before breaks (Spring, Christmas, Easter) are days for parties, movies, silly games.  Why??? In my mind, these are still school days where we can learn, teach, explore.   I have many students who are not even at school today.  Their parents decided to call them in as absent so the students could go on vacation early or something of the like.  Why?  I am a parent and would never let my kids get off a day of school to go to their grandma’s or Florida.  School and their education should be the #1 priority.  Unfortunately, not many people feel that way. 

If it was up to me, students would be assessed on their attendance to school, but also what they did during the day.  Now I know this might ruffle a few feathers, especially those teachers who don’t really teach.  Teachers should be held accountable for the hours they spend with students.  Are they actually doing something worthwhile or frittering away the time?  I would hope that parents would want their children to be spending their time at school in pursuit of a good education.  Maybe I am sadly mistaken.  

For now, I guess I have to put up with the 6 hours of movies (at least I get to watch Elf, one of my favorite Christmas movies) and hope that when I have my own school (right after I become a multi-millionaire) we can address these issues.

Background on the situation: My school is PK-12 with two social studies teachers.  As the first one hired, and the one teaching more periods, I am often considered the head of the department.  (Yeah for my resume, not so yeah for my actual job).  Therefore, any curriculum questions or special events go to me first.

Throughout the year I receive information on Scope and Sequence.  For those of you who haven’t had the pleasure of dealing with Scope and Sequence, Scope refers to all the topics being covered and depth of topics and Sequence to the timeline of coverage of topics.  Now every school has its own Scope and Sequence, often based off of textbooks and state standards.  Most do not question it, but we should be questioning it.  As the department head I have had the freedom to create my own Scope and Sequence for the classes I actively teach and have coordinated the process with some of the other teachers who touch on my subject.  But this process raises some interesting questions:

What should we be teaching? Some of my students have jokingly referred to me as “the killer of dreams” in that I often have to correct the lies, misrepresentations, and omissions they have learned in previous classes.

My favorite is Thanksgiving.  What should we be teaching our students about Thanksgiving?  I am sure that since it is November, my children will be coming home one of these days with a pretty happy story about how the Indians and Pilgrims sat down and had a meal together at the first Thanksgiving and gave thanks for the blessings that had received.

Now I have no problem with the message their teacher is trying to impart about giving thanks and appreciating your blessings and the people around you.  I do have a problem with the story being presented.  How is that an accurate picture of history????   The high schoolers get so disappointed when I dispel their fairy tale image of the native Americans and the Pilgrims.  They didn’t have a meal together, let alone a happy meal.  While it’s true that the native tribe did help the Pilgrims through that first tough year by providing some food and showing them planting techniques, they did not have a good relationship with many skirmishes throughout and a general disdain of the natives by the Pilgrims.  Later the Pilgrims had no problem pushing the natives off their land and in some cases killing them.

But is this what we should teach my 6-year-olds?

No, I don’t think we should get into the graphic details of the “messier” aspects of history at that young of an age, but we shouldn’t lie to them either.  I find it amazing that we openly lie to children about certain topics.  I find it even more amazing that we do this in my school where we have a commandment on the wall about not lying.  Isn’t that a major contradiction???   I think we need to examine the topics we are covering.

When should we be teaching it? Continuing with the Thanksgiving theme, at what point do we clue students into the messy aspects of the events.  I would say in this instance that upper elementary students could handle the topic and start to think about the complex relationship between the American settlers and the native tribes.  I should not be correcting the lies for the first time as juniors in high school.  I have found that students in general can handle many of the messy aspects of history just fine in my classes.  They are presented the real facts of the event and then contemplate the implications of the events and importance to that time period in history.  In many instances we even debate the opposing viewpoints of the the topic.

By never cluing students into the “truth,” we are robbing them of the real history of the world.  They can handle it, just not as 1st graders.

How should we be teaching it?  Specifically the depth. I simply cannot teach all of U.S. History in one year.  It cannot be done.  So what do I leave out?  How in-depth do I go for any specific topic?  I find myself constantly picking and choosing the areas, usually based off of my own personal interests.  For example, I gloss over some of the political fights during the robber baron era of industrialization to spend some more time on the Progressive Reforms.  Can you guess which era I specialize in?  Every teacher, no matter what subject they teach, has to pick the depth for each topic.  It’s a no win situation.

What’s the solution to Scope and Sequence? Start from scratch.  Reorganize the entire system.  Now they (politicians) attempted to do this with State standards, but those are inconsistant and in some places wrong.  We need to put teachers together and let them decide what, when and how to teach all the subjects.  A sample proposed solution: teach English and Social Studies together weaving literature and writing with history.  Another sample solution: Cover the entire U.S. history timeline throughout elementary school, focusing on a time period each year, but overall generalizing it.  Once into middle school, teachers can slow down and focus more on specific topics, and start exploring the ambiguities within history, the tough issues.  Some schools do this, but the practice is so inconsistent I never know what is going to be taught or not be taught and when.

The system cannot be changed piecemeal.  I, as a single teacher, cannot fix the problem, but I bet wiping the slate and starting over could have the desired effect.  Then maybe my children will learn about the concept of Thanksgiving when its appropriate and learn the truth about the uneasy relationship between colonists and natives when they can handle it.  All without having them dress up and play a fairy tale.

P.S. I do like fairy tales, just not when they are taught as fact.

Now what, you may ask, has this to do with education?  Well, somedays I feel like all common decency and respect has disappeared.  My parents would have been mortified if a teacher told them I repeatedly left food crumbs and wrappers on the class floor and farted loudly and on purpose.  Those kinds of behaviors were not tolerated in my house.  I was raised with a high level of respect to the people around me and the environment I was in.  I certainly act differently if I in the comfort and privacy of my own house versus a public event.  I don’t want to sound like my grandma, but “kids these days don’t have any respect.”  I have had students seriously ask me why it was not appropriate to fart in the class (“But it’s a natural bodily function”)  or why they couldn’t leave their candy bar wrapper on the floor (“Isn’t that why we pay the janitors?”).  I am trying to teach my own children (twin 6 year olds) etiquette and common decency, but see none of it among the students in my classroom.  Have their parents  dropped the ball on respect and decency or has the culture moved beyond the simple “Please,” “Thank you,” and “Sorrys.”

In my mind, I shouldn’t be teaching common decency at the high school level.  I should be teaching students how to think, investigate, question, plan, imagine, wonder, revise… but somedays that gets pushed to the side so I can remind them that…

No “Johnny”  farting in public is not funny or appropriate when I am teaching!