Teacher World

From time to time I have told you that I will share some of my morning readings with you when they are exceptionally uplifting or thought-provoking. A recent reading from God’s Little Devotional Journal for Women was so wonderful that I felt I needed to share it with you. I am not trying to push my religious beliefs on you. This reading is ideal for everyone to read no matter what your religious beliefs might be. So here goes…

“Our lives are that moment when the perfume hangs in the air before dissipating. We’ve only a mist of a lifetime, and then it will be spent. While our souls will live eternally, our opportunities on this earth to love and laugh with people will be gone before we can fully appreciate it.

So we need to breathe deeply and live fully and thank wholeheartedly and kiss passionately and hug warmly and love without reserve. We need to have babies and train pets and smell good food and laugh with friends. We need to cry freely and dance sometimes and sing whenever we have the chance. We will only have a moment here, and then it will be gone. Looking ahead, it seems like a lifetime, but looking back, it’s just the blink of an eye.”

How many times do we look back and ask ourselves where the time has gone? We live our lives looking forward to what is going to make us happy instead of focusing on what makes us happy right now. My hope for all of us is that we can begin to live for each day and be content in the living. As parents and teachers, we need to teach children to live this way as well. Life truly is fleeting, so let us live today with passion and joy. In the process, we may learn how to be sincerely thankful.

Teacher-World's Blog inspirational words, parents, teachers

Hey all you Glee fans out there, what do you think about the latest story line with Kurt and the bullying football player? I personally am thrilled to see such a popular television series attacking this sensitive subject in a realistic and sometimes sadly humorous manner.

Hollywood is taking on the prevalent and pervasive problem we face in schools everywhere; the issue of bullying. In these episodes of Glee, the harassment is centered on the only gay student who has “come out” publically. The timeliness of these shows and the letter from the ORC to the Department of Education which specifically identifies bullying someone because of their sexual orientation as a violation of their civil rights was clearly unplanned but perfect. In this television show, Kurt is being bullied by a football player who apparently is struggling with his own sexuality. Every time he runs into Kurt he bullies him either verbally, physically, or both. He has even threatened to kill the timid Kurt if he reveals that he is also battling sexual issues. As a result, Kurt, always wary of the next attack, loses weight, loses focus on his work, and is increasingly afraid to come to school.

When Kurt’s friends in the Glee Club find out what is happening, they rally together and confront the bully. Their attempt to stop the bullying turns into a general brawl, and finally things come to a head when Kurt’s father discovers what has been happening and demands that the principal does something to protect his son. Initially, the principal expels the bully, but later changes her mind and lets him return to school. Another confrontation and threat aimed at Kurt finally convinces Kurt to enroll in another school leaving Glee Club, his friends, and all he knows in order to regain his sense of safety and peace.

Okay, so it’s just a television show, but isn’t it so much more than that? It has become a reality and a living nightmare to so many young people. I applaud the writers and producers of Glee for tackling such a sensitive issue with honesty and candor. We cannot hear the message enough! Bullying is not acceptable, it is devastating to those who are bullied, and it literally is threatening the very lives of our young people. Young people everywhere face the kind of attacks we are seeing in this television show. And, just like Kurt, many students feel the need to enroll elsewhere to ensure their safety. The news is also full of the sad tales of students who opt out in other ways. Suicide and other violent responses to bullying riddle our society. Watch the show! Read the news! It is television mimicking life. And just as the writers and producers of Glee are doing, we need to deliver a clear and consistent message that it will not be tolerated in our schools anymore!

Bullying, Teacher-World's Blog Bullying, civil rights, Glee, OCR, schools, suicide

I am wiped out! I have just completed a two-day work week and yet, I can barely function! So, what made this week so different?

First, before any vacation, the electricity in the classroom is intensified to an amazing degree. Today was no exception. Our students were incredibly excited and this leads to increased activity and socialization. We had center work this morning rotating between a reading center where the focus was exploring the literary elements of a Russian folk tale and a math center which focused on which kind of graph is appropriate to show certain kinds of data. This went fairly well, although it required repeated intervention to keep the students focused. I am not certain how much of what they learned actually sunk in today, but we powered through regardless.

Center work was followed by a birthday celebration complete with cupcakes for one of our students. We truly didn’t need any further excuse to get crazy, but this increased the excitement level significantly. Then, before lunch, we received an email that explained that even though grades for this first trimester are due by Sunday, we may be unable to get into the program which allows us to enter our grades due to problems on the site. As a result, we felt the need to take advantage of the fact that we were able to access the program today and try to complete our report cards.

In the afternoon, we had planned to watch a Thanksgiving movie, so while our children were entertained, we got online and completed our report cards. Relief! But it wasn’t time to relax yet. Oh no! Everyone in our hallway was in the process of dismantling Thanksgiving decorations and bulletin boards and replacing them with Christmas decorations. So, I went to work relentlessly tearing down my family turkey bulletin board, putting up my Christmas board, stringing Christmas lights, setting up a Christmas tree, and stringing it with bulbs.

Now, call me done and totally wiped out! A long two-day work week is over. May the relaxation and family fun begin. Happy Thanksgiving!

Teacher-World's Blog students, teachers, Thanksgiving, vacation

With Thanksgiving looming, we all begin to count our blessings and enumerate what we are thankful for. Most of us probably list our families, our health, our friends. But I can’t help but also think of my job and all of the things I have to be grateful for this year professionally.

I am grateful for my co-teacher and my paraprofessional. I am so fortunate to have hard-working but easy-going adults to work with. Our personalities blend beautifully and effortlessly. We have never had a disagreement or even a difference of opinion. We appreciate each other and come in to work each day with a great attitude and with plenty of enthusiasm. The atmosphere is positive and cooperative, and our students see this and react accordingly. I am so grateful that I have had the opportunity to work with these two ladies and can’t imagine working any other way at this point.

I am grateful that I am able to teach in a co-teaching classroom, and that we are really getting it right this year. We are using the techniques we learned in our training classes and have found them to be very effective. We have dabbled with acting as we teach, and our students love it. In one of our conferences, the parents told us how much their daughter enjoys it when we act things out. They commented upon how rare it was to see teachers get into teaching as we do. We are just hams enough that we love being a little silly and entertaining our students whenever we can. As a result, we are working hard, but we are having a great time doing it.

I am grateful that we have a wonderful group of students this year, especially since this is the first time we have tried a self-contained co-teaching classroom. I can’t imagine if we had kids who were discipline problems when they are in your classroom all day except for specials. So, how lucky we are to have a group of students who are respectful of each other, willing to help each other, and so sweet! They aren’t perfect, but pretty darn close, and we are exceedingly grateful for that.

I am grateful for my other coworkers. We have, in my opinion, an exceptional staff comprised of truly caring teachers and aides. And we generally coexist very peacefully. Oh, from time to time there is a minor skirmish or two, but they are usually settled quickly and life goes on as normal. I am grateful that due to our hard work, we have been acknowledged as a school of excellence and distinction. I just wish that it didn’t take test scores to make that determination.

In general, I am grateful for our parents. For the most part, we have very involved and concerned parents who work diligently and in tandem with our school. We have many parents who volunteer their time to come and help teachers or to work with students to review concepts such as math facts. These parents help our school run more smoothly.

The year is young, but I feel so very grateful for the bountiful blessings I have experienced already, and look forward to what is to come. I hope all of you who are reading this have been as blessed as I have been. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Teacher-World's Blog co-teaching, parents, students, Thanksgiving

I’m all for the child nutrition bill, the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, which is pending in the House. This is one priority of President and First Lady Obama’s which I think many of us involved in education can embrace as its goal is to improve what is being offered to our students for school lunches and breakfasts. At a time when child obesity is increasing drastically and so many are struggling economically, schools need to be held accountable to improve what they are serving our students.

Many children either choose not to eat breakfast before coming to school or are on Free and Reduced Lunch which allows them to receive free breakfasts, too. Last year when our school started serving breakfasts, few of my students took advantage of this option. The ones who did tended to be the ones who qualified to receive breakfast for free. But I have noticed this year that about half of my students are either buying or receiving breakfasts. What is the difference? I think it’s what is being served. Breakfast usually consists of a choice of sweetened cereal, a donut or sweet roll of some kind, cinnamon bread, yogurt (which is rarely chosen), milk, and juice. Most of what they are eating is empty calories with minimal nutritional value. I don’t think I have ever seen fruit or anything which would provide protein being served for breakfast. Sugar and carbs! That’s our school breakfast, and this is supposed to fortify our students and get them physically ready and mentally alert for learning!

Lunches aren’t much better. A little lighter on the sugar, but the carbohydrates and grease are unreal! Our most coveted lunches are pizza, nachos, chicken fries or nuggets, breadsticks filled with cheese served with dipping sauce, and breakfast for lunch, which is French toast sticks and potato patties. Then, after filling up on all of these carbs, students can buy two extras. These include chips, cookies, fruit snacks, and candy. Rarely is fresh fruit available, and while vegetables are served, they are rarely eaten. Students can opt to order a salad, but the salads are made with iceberg lettuce so there is little nutritional value to them either.

Therefore, I am happy to report that the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, is being heartily supported by many, in fact, “more than 1000 organizations from all 50 states—representing public health experts, private sector companies, and faith-based and anti-hunger organizations—wrote to the House of Representatives urging passage of this legislation.” It has already passed in the Senate, and will hopefully pass in the House of Representatives as well. If passed, it would do the following (according to the Department of Education website):

* Increase access to meal programs.
* Improve nutrition standards.
* Increase education about healthy eating.
* Establish standards for competitive foods sold in schools.
* Increase physical activity.
* Train people who prepare school meals.
* Enhance food safety.

I thoroughly support the efforts to pass this important bill. We need to teach our children to eat better, and we need to provide healthy food for those students whose best or only meals are those they are receiving at school. If the members of the House of Representatives were to randomly visit schools in the states they represent, I am quite sure this bill would pass by a landslide! Let’s get this bill passed and provide meals that will improve the health and physical well-being of our children.

Teacher-World's Blog child obesity, Department of Education, free and reduced lunches, Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, school lunch programs

The rest of the letter which I have been reporting on from the Office of Civil Rights found on the Department of Education website is a rather stern warning to schools to address bullying directly and firmly. It clearly states that investigating and addressing known incidents of harassment is the responsibility of all schools, and addresses the need for well-publicized policies which would prohibit harassment.

The letter addresses the need to investigate and deal with all suspected incidents, not just ones reported by parents. “When responding to harassment, a school must take immediate and appropriate action to investigate or otherwise determine what occurred.  The specific steps in a school’s investigation will vary depending upon the nature of the allegations, the source of the complaint, the age of the student or students involved, the size and administrative structure of the school, and other factors. In all cases, however, the inquiry should be prompt, thorough, and impartial.” Interestingly, I caught a local news report regarding bullying and how our local schools measure up when it comes to handling the incidents that are occurring. What they found from the reports being sent to the state by districts regarding these incidents is that the stronger the bullying policy implemented in the school and the more consistently it is followed, the less cases of bullying there seem to be.

Now, you are probably thinking, “Duh!” Yes, it seems so obvious, but let’s explore the ramifications of this report more thoroughly. This report should tell us all that we can stop bullying if we make a concerted effort to do so. Some school districts are decreasing the occurrences through tougher policies, so every school district needs to do the same.

The letter, which I encourage you to read, lays out the proper procedures to follow to correctly deal with reported or known incidents. By the time I got to the end of this letter from OCR, I got the impression that we, who are in education, are being warned in no uncertain terms that we need to get it together where bullying is concerned. We have been warned now through the Ohio Civil Rights program and the Department of Education to take this seriously. If we choose to minimize the message, we will have only ourselves to blame if we are publically called on the carpet for allowing bullying to continue unchecked. And if that means a lawsuit, well, we’ve been warned! Bullying is the hot topic right now and rightfully so. So, readers beware and let’s crack down on harassment and bullying!

Bullying, Teacher-World's Blog Bullying, bullying policy, Department of Education, harassment, Ohio Civil Rights

Have you heard about schools like Francis Parkman Middle School in Los Angeles which has been reorganized and run primarily by teachers? This is an example of the latest trend for turning around poorly performing schools and an alternative to charter schools. Here’s the scoop on this school in particular.

Francis Parkman Middle School, a school in which half the student body is Hispanic, and the other half speaks 26 languages ranging from Armenian to Farsi, and where 40 percent of its population is on free or reduced lunches, was notorious for its low test scores and unruly students. The faculty was limping along under what they claimed was an apathetic administration. The school was in desperate need of physical repair and maintenance. While the acceptable mark for standardized tests is in the 800s in Los Angeles, this school’s test scores were generally in the 600s. Their music program had been canceled, and when two charter schools opened in the area, their enrollment dropped significantly over the next two years. In fact, it was being looked at by a hospital as a potential parking lot. The final straw occurred when two teachers had to be laid off due to declining enrollment. Apparently teachers got fed up, and four of them filed an application to turn this troubled school into a teacher-led school.

Since then, the school has been renamed Woodland Hills Academy. Although they still have a principal, that individual carries the same weight as the teachers, and the district has little say in how the school operates. In spite of initial difficulties and some loss of personnel who were unwilling to put in the time it took to revamp the school, many changes were made which have brought significant improvements to this once-beleaguered school. Teachers set the school’s goals for test scores and ESL placement, decide their own professional development track, changed the schedule to better rotate teachers, and revamped the curriculum to include music, art and electives like photography and journalism. Enrollment and parent involvement have increased drastically, and the school’s test score is 783, which is very close to the state’s targeted score. Teachers reported that it wasn’t easy and sometimes brutal, but much good has come out of their hard work.

Is this the new trend? The jury is still out on that. The success of Woodland Hills has not been mirrored everywhere, but this is an alternative movement to charter schools which seems to have some real merit. We will have to keep our eyes on future districts whose teachers fight to lead their schools. It is certainly exciting!
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Educational Reform, state achievement tests charter schools, state test scores, teacher-led schools, Woodland Hills Academy

In the letter from the Department of Education regarding bullying, it defines bullying that violates the Civil Rights Acts of 1964 and Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. Basically these additions to the Civil Rights Act specifically prohibit discrimination based on race, color, national origin, sex, or disability. The letter goes on to state that: “School districts may violate these civil rights statutes and the Department’s implementing regulations when peer harassment based on race, color, national origin, sex, or disability is sufficiently serious that it creates a hostile environment and such harassment is encouraged, tolerated, not adequately addressed, or ignored by school employees.”

Herein lies the crux of the problem. I believe that we have a tendency to almost expect that people and students in general will be teased if they are of a different race, sexual persuasion, or are slower either mentally or physically. It has become acceptable to poke fun at people who are different. Come on, admit it. You’ve heard the racial jokes, the short bus jokes, the gay and lesbian comments. You may have even told a few in your time. As a result, we are guilty of allowing such behavior to become acceptable. Therefore, when we hear students tease other students in this way, we may not take it as seriously as we should.

Whatever causes us to be so insensitive to others must change. In light of the serious repercussions such teasing and bullying has created, we have no alternative but to readjust our own attitudes if we expect to change the attitudes of bullies. The time has come to take these racial, sexual, and disabled comments, teasing, and bullying seriously. As school employees there is no wiggle room here. We need to protect those who are unable to protect themselves. We violate not only the Civil Rights Act by not doing so, but we violate innocent children who have a right to expect our support and our protection.

Bullying, Teacher-World's Blog Bullying, discrimination, Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Ohio Civil Rights, schools

Awhile ago, we received an email from our superintendent which included a link to the Department of Education website. The letter, written from the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Ohio Civil Rights,  is both a dissertation regarding what constitutes bullying, what form of bullying specifically violates one’s civil rights, and a strong warning to school systems everywhere to tighten up their anti-bullying policies. In light of all the recent lawsuits against school systems, it is a timely letter to all of us. Since it is such a critical topic which concerns each of us, either as students, parents, teachers, or administrators, I thought I should break it down over the next few blogs and take some real time with this sensitive issue.

The letter begins by defining bullying as behavior that “fosters a climate of fear and disrespect that can seriously impair the physical and psychological health of its victims and create conditions that negatively affect learning, thereby undermining the ability of students to achieve their full potential.”

Sadly, we have all seen it. Maybe we have felt it. Maybe there was something different about you, something that stood out and caused you to be noticed. And the teasing started, and it hurt. But then the teasing got more brutal, and you didn’t want to go to school and face it one more day. Maybe it wasn’t you; maybe it was a friend, and you wanted to stand up for them when the bullying began, but you were afraid it would turn on you so you stood silently by and then hated yourself afterward for not defending someone you care about. Maybe you were the one doing the bullying, and you felt some power that had previously escaped you but somehow took away some hidden pain of your own as you inflicted pain on someone else. And perhaps even as you felt that burn of power, you also felt a deep sense of disappointment in the person you were becoming.

Yes, we’ve all experienced it in some form. We were either the one hurt, the one powerless to help the one who was hurting, or the one doing the hurting. Either way, we were all powerfully affected by what we experienced. And for that very reason, we all need to take a stand when it comes to bullying. We can no longer sit back and say that bullying has always been around. Too many have been damaged or worse because of this malignant meanness. It is time to stand up to the cancer that threatens us, our children, or our grandchildren. It is time to say no more. We owe it to all those who have been hurt to say, NO MORE!!!!!!

Bullying, Teacher-World's Blog Bullying, Department of Education, Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Ohio Civil Rights, schools

A very interesting study performed by a University of Maryland researcher, Sandra L. Hofferth, reveals that preteen children who spend a lot of time on the computer actually seem to do better on achievement tests. Additionally, there appear to be greater benefits for girls and black boys. At face value, it is pretty interesting stuff as it seems just the opposite of what we would expect.

Hofferth published her results in the journal Child Development, stating that, “Generally, adolescent achievement and adjustment showed benefits from the use of the computer, and it didn’t have to be studying. It could be playing games,” because, computer use, “involves problem-solving. It involves reading; it involves communication, and these are skills that help children.” 

According to her research, girls who were spending more time on the computer saw a point improvement in their achievement test scores for math and reading, while African-American boys who spent increased time on the computer improved their reading scores by four points. Another positive effect, Hofferth claims was these same white girls were less likely to be withdrawn when they played on the computer. Children spend time in a variety of different ways on the computer, from messaging, studying and surfing Web sites, social networking, to playing games, but Hofferth noted that the biggest increase in computer activity in young children is the time spent playing computer games.

Now, all of this sounds great at first read, but shouldn’t we also factor in the negative effects of increased computer use by young children? Things like lack of exercise which can lead to child obesity (an issue which is certainly on the rise in America). Young children spend so much time on the computer or video games that they rarely play outside and get fresh air. What about the loss of family time and family activities? What about the lost art of reading a good book instead of vegging on the computer? It is the opinion of many of us in the teaching profession that this highly visual world that young children wrap themselves in makes it difficult for them to focus on activities which are less visually stimulating, thus making some school activities more challenging for them.

I hope if parents read this study, that they weigh very carefully what is to be gained by more computer time. As a parent I would need to ask myself very carefully if one to four points improvement on achievement tests is more important than my children having well-balanced lives filled with family and social activities and regular physical activities for their general health. And whether I would rather see them zoned out in front of a computer screen or curled up with a good book. It is all about priorities, and frankly I would rather raise well-rounded, well-adjusted, socially stimulated and involved children than encouraging more computer time in the hopes that they gain a point or two on tests I don’t even agree with.

state achievement tests, Teacher-World's Blog child obesity, computers, parents, Sandra L. Hofferth, state achievement tests