Dialing for Dollars

From: indiatalkies.com

I stumbled across an article about Idaho's plan to tie teacher bonus pay into parent contact.  On one hand, I'm all for experimenting with compensation ideas for teachers (although I think the plans tied to test scores are a bad idea).  On the other hand, given that some schools (like mine) include many students who have parents that constantly move, up to four times in a school year, it could be quite hard for some teachers to talk to their students' parents on a regular basis.

The article mentions that many town in Idaho are so small that teachers and parents will run into each other at the grocery store.  If only I could be so lucky!  One of the benefits of living 25 minutes from school is not seeing my students and their parents when I go shopping!

Bastards

From: discoveryeducation.com




There are a lot of people that complain about what our legislators at the state and federal level do in regards to education, but for the most part, I haven't been one of them...until now.

It's one thing for our state legislators to extend our school year by five days. I understand that if you look at our students' test scores, they ain't all that. So, one could make the argument that five more days in school could increase our students' scores. Fine--add a week to the beginning of the school year, or two at the beginning and three at the end.

But, no. We take away vacations and teacher workdays within the established calendar so we can add our five days without adding five days of pay to our teachers' paychecks. I'm not upset about losing out on any money. What makes me mad are the options presented to us: take away Memorial Day, three days of spring break or other such nonsense.

Why do we need those days? As I tell my students, the longest stretch of the school year is from Labor Day to the end of first quarter. We go five straight weeks, five days a week. Students get on teachers' nerves and teachers get on students' nerves. Our students here had been relatively well-behaved until the last couple of weeks; now kids are starting to snap. We need those workdays to keep sanity for both our teachers and our students. Without them, where will the break come from?

Next Question

I'm showing this video in class tomorrow about NFL super agent Drew Rosenhaus.  Many of my students through the years have expressed an interest in being a sports agent.  We'll see if they change their tune after watching this...

Dan Wheldon

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

I showed the video above to my class today.  It's hard to talk to a class full of teens about death, and I'm sure I didn't do a good job.

I wanted to make sure they knew about the risks of driving 230 mph, and why Dan Wheldon's death in particular was news.  Didn't hear until after I showed the video that NASCAR driver Jimmie Johnson recommended that IndyCar not drive in ovals--the speeds are too fast.

Most of my students aren't racing enthusiasts, so I wonder how much of this video sunk in.  Was it something that they were interested in because it was such a spectacular crash, or are they truly interested in the underlying reasons behind a race car crash?

Keeping Track of Things With Evernote

From: galaxytab-samsung.net

I don't remember who turned me on to Evernote, but I thought it was important to note that I didn't stumble across it myself.  I'm sure it was someone in our instructional technology department.

Evernote is a web site (and an app) that you can download to different machines.  As you make a note on one machine, Evernote syncs that note with the Evernote app on each of your machines.  I downloaded it first on my school-issued Samsung Galaxy Tab.  Evernote works really well on the Galaxy, because you can attach pictures, videos and voice memos to the notes.

Evernote also works well with computers.  You can attach files from your laptop or desktop and open them up somewhere.  I even have it on my personal iPod Touch; I'm just not sure how much I would want to use Evernote on that.

As crazy as it's been to be a technology facilitator at my school, Evernote has helped me get (somewhat) organized with all of the things people are asking me to do for them.

Eeeeevil Technology

From: leftcoastcowboys.com

I swear I am at my wit's end with being a technology facilitator. Asking a teacher to do this job part-time is a recipe for disaster. At every other job I've had, there has been someone that works full-time on tech (and is very good at it). Heck, even when I started teaching, our school had a full-time tech person. When I look around the room while at our technology facilitator meetings, I see full-time techs giving part-time techs instructions on how to get tasks done. For all the talk about 21st century teachers and 21st century students, we sure don't seem to be making much of a commitment for supporting that idea.

What got me started on this rant was having to set up an LCD projector and laptop for our guidance department. Simple, right? Well, it is...until you have to ask teachers to take those items out of their classrooms in order for that presentation to happen. Are you telling me that our school can't afford to have a set-up that we can roll out of the front office for things like that? Why should teachers have to give up their equipment during class time for this?! I also have a general level of frustration with being a technology facilitator due to my own ignorance--I seem to be batting about .300 when it comes to getting things fixed.

If there's a way to get fired as a tech support person and stay as a full-time teacher, I'm all ears!

From the NFL to Teaching

I wanted to play a video to start class today, and I stumbled into a short one from ESPN's Outside the Lines show.  It's about former NFL player and his transition to high school teacher and coach.

My students thought the video was interesting.  Too bad more professional athletes don't step into the classroom...

Communicating With Parents

 From:  oswego.edu

Interesting article in the Washington Post recently regarding a school's communication breakdown with parents.  To sum it up, the parents wanted more timely communication with the school, especially regarding how the PTO money was spent.

I can't speak to the money part of calling parents, but I can when it comes to grades.  In the past year, our parents have had access to their child's grades via our grading software.  Great!  I try and keep my grades within a week of being up-to-date (even though I've heard stories from students at other schools regarding teachers that are less than prompt about entering grades). 

E-mail is great, too.  I try and answer e-mails from parents within 24 hours, and having a working e-mail address increases a parent's odds that they'll hear from me.

Phone calls?  Not so much.  I've never been a great phone person, but that's no excuse--that's my job.  My excuse for not calling parents more?  The phone numbers almost never seem to work.  The numbers we have in our system are too often disconnected or outdated.  I guess that can be a problem when your family moves four times a year.

I really should do a better job of calling parents.  I've already called more parents than normal this year, due to tardies, with varying success.  This week, I'll be making grade-related calls.  I hope something works...

That's Freakin' Crazy!

I showed my students the "60 Minutes" video about rock climber Alex Honnold.  And when I say "rock climber," I mean a guy that climbs rocks with nothing but his hands and feet.  No ropes, no harness, no nothin'!

Interesting things:  Honnold practiced climbing 3 hours a day, 6 days a week at a climbing gym in his home state of California.  He lives in a van while stateside, showering every few days.

My students seemed to be more willing to climbs the rockface than to go without showering for three days.  I guess that's a good thing!

Are You Ready For Some Fuhrer-ball?

ESPN pulled Hank Williams Jr.'s long-running song "Are You Ready For Some Football" off Monday's telecast of the Bucs-Colts game. Why? Because he compared President Obama to Hitler. This is nothing new of course. Two years ago, Megan Fox was fired from the "Transformers" movie series after comparing Michael Bay to the Fuhrer.

In this day and age, I don't understand how anyone in the public eye can compare anyone to Hitler. The simile is obviously radioactive, and there's no way to explain it away. It's just one of those things that can't be said in this day and age. That being said, is this the last incident like this? I doubt it...