Why Are Middle School Students Bastards?

Well done, middle school students of America!  I can't decide which is worse.

This:


or this:

How is This Guy Still on TV?

I've decided to avoid ESPN for at least two weeks in the wake of LeBron James' first NBA title.  The jock-sniffing at that network is just too much for me to handle at times, especially when it comes to BronBron.  It's amazing that some commentators on ESPN wonder why LeBron gets the hate that he does, after their own network hosts "The Decision" and has a Heat Index on their web site.  And the watchers at Deadspin can tell you how much time SportsCenter has spent on LeBron and the Heat in the last month.

One of my main reasons to avoid ESPN right now is Skip Bayless.  Now, normally I don't get a chance to watch Skip anyway, but with the summer here, I can pick and choose what I want to watch.  And I choose not to watch Skip.  I can remember a segment ESPN used to do on SportsCenter called Old School/New Skool, where Bayless used to debate Stephen A. Smith.  Five years later, they're doing the same schtick on First Take, throwing opinions and predictions around with no accountability...until Mark Cuban called him on it.  Enjoy the show!

I've Got a Bad Feeling About This

From: umich.edu

The woman I'm replacing at my new school was famous (or infamous) for having up to five preps a year.  So I guess I should have gone into this with my eyes wide open, but...damn!

I'm only teaching three different classes this year: SEM I, Strategic Marketing and Web Page Design.  SEM I's curriculum is changing this year, which I knew about because I piloted the new curriculum last year.  I taught Strategic Marketing once (four years ago), but it has been radically rewritten since that time.  And I've never taught Web Page Design, and need to figure out exactly how to do this html stuff.

I was hoping that I'd teach two SEM I classes a semester, with a new class sprinkled in each semester.  Then my department told me I was teaching SEM I, Strategic Marketing and Web Page Design all in the fall.  Yikes!  On the flip side, I'll be teaching nothing but SEM I in the spring.

At least SEM I is not changing from my pilot days--wrong!  I just saw the new curriculum on Friday, and it's changed (slightly), too.  Basically, I'm going to have a long 18 weeks starting August 27th.

It's a Scam

From: trafficticketteam.com

When I was first hired as a teacher, I had to get my license through our state's lateral entry program, since I didn't get a degree in education.  It took me three years to take the five classes I needed and pass the Business Education Praxis test--key word being business.

It took me a long time to figure out that there was a difference between a business license and a marketing license.  I still don't understand why.  I've never heard of a School of Marketing.  If you want a degree in marketing, you go to the School of Business and take marketing classes.

Anyway, for the last three years, I haven't even taught a business; it's been exclusively marketing classes.  I began to wonder at the end of this year if I should take the marketing ed Praxis just to be on the safe side.

Then my CTE director mentioned I should take the test.  Then when I interviewed for my new job last week, my principal asked me about taking the test.  Then my new department head asked me about taking the test. Then my CTE director mentioned again.  And she mentioned I needed to pay $55 for a provisional license until I pay $80 to pay for the Praxis test this year.

If you're keeping score, I am a certified business that's not certified to teach marketing, even though: 

A) my minor as an undergrad was marketing

B) I have an MBA with an emphasis on marketing

C) I worked in marketing in the television business for four years (and spent three summers in sales while in college)

D) I'm being paid to present a four hour presentation at our summer conference on...wait for it...marketing

Back to the story: I e-mailed my county's licensing guru and asked her about getting that provisional license.  Her response--I had enough marketing credits in my transcripts to add a marketing certification to my license.  For a mere $55, she could add that to my license...and I wouldn't even have to take the Praxis.  That almost made me madder than hearing that I would have to take the Praxis.  So, I write a check for $55, and now I'm suddenly OK to teach marketing?  

C'mon, man!

Getting Traded

From: sportssavvy.com

I just finished my sixth year in teaching, all at the same school...until now.

In the spring, I submitted my intent form saying that I would be interested in a job at three schools, all of which are closer to my home than where I currently work.  I've had some rough years at my school, but this past year was fantastic--I had the best group of kids I've ever had.  I really had the best teaching gig in the county, teaching Sports Marketing I & II and being my school's technology facilitator.

Which meant I wasn't going to leave my old school for any job at one of the other schools.  I decided I was only going to leave if any one of three people left their jobs.  Three teachers...out of nearly 10,000.  As late as Tuesday morning, I had it in my mind that I wasn't going anywhere.

But then...one of the three teachers left.  Again, three out of 10,000. So I fired off the resume on Wednesday morning, got called for an interview on Thursday, and then interviewed/received an offer/accepted the offer on Friday morning.  This is about the fastest I've seen the school system work.

My daughter asked me what I would do with all of my clothes with my old school's logo on them.  Good question.  I pulled all of the t-shirts out of the drawer, the collared shirts off the rack and the hats from the shelf.  I think I've got about a dozen items with my old school's logo.  Looking at the stack, I wondered: is this what being traded feels like? A baseball player must have plenty of gear and knickknacks from their team--what do they do with it all after they get traded?  What did Albert Pujols (above) do with all of his Cardinals stuff?

Not to mention whether they get nervous or not--I'm nervous about starting at a new school; it's the fear of the unknown.  We'll see...

You're Not Special

I guess every teacher with a blog has to talk about this graduation speech, right?

I'm assuming that many teachers (and adults) in general agree with the premise of the speaker's message: if everyone is special, then no one is special.  We seem to have a generation of kids that want to hear praise for a good effort, not good results.  That's all well and good, but the real question to me is, who are these people that praising these kids constantly, and do they know that they're doing it?

We still seem to have a steady stream of parents that come to our school, telling us that there is no way that Little Johnny could have done what he has been accused of--despite the video evidence to the contrary.  When Little Susie fails a class, let's blame the teacher.  When Little Johnny doesn't start for the basketball team, it's the coach's fault.  I can imagine that if the parents of the graduates were close enough to their children, they would whisper in their ears to let them know that, in fact, they are special.  Maybe not the kid to the left of them, maybe not the kid to the right, but you, Little Johnny, are.  No matter what that mean teacher at the podium is saying.

I'm glad that someone finally said what needs to be said regarding students and their special-ness, but I would imagine that things won't change once students (and their parents) come through the doors in August.

Graduation

From: aub.edu

Graduation:  that annual rite were many deserving (and some undeserving) youngsters pass through high school for the last time.

Another annual rite is the dissection of the list of graduates by teachers, pointing out which ones don't deserve to graduate.  I try not to engage in such snarkiness, but I can't help it.  Why?  I imagine that it is borne out of frustration: we see kids that do nearly nothing, slide by with a sub-1.0 GPA, get recognized at awards day for completing some anti-dropout program and then get the same piece of paper that their harder working peers get.

I'm convinced that one thing that keeps administrators awake at night is the graduation rate in their school/district.  And an easy way to keep the graduation rate up is to open the net up so wide that almost everyone gets to walk across the stage on graduation day.  But my question is this: if we raised the standard for graduation (2.0+ GPA, more credits required), wouldn't it make the diploma mean more?  Yes, I know that the graduation rate would probably drop, but if we let nearly everyone graduate, then what's the point of any of this?

For years, I've had my students comment on a job of the week, no matter what class I teach.  I decided today to take the requirements of each job I had listed this quarter and make a Wordle out of it.  The result is above.

I wanted to see which terms popped up the most during the last nine weeks.  I kinda messed this up--it was my first time using Wordle, and I should've edited some of the words that were used over and over again that really were just fillers, like "ability" and "including."

It's hard to read in this blog--you can click on it to see it full-size.  You can make some other words out that are repeated frequently: marketing (obviously), experience, fast-paced, communication and skills.  I'm going to try this again with some editing to see what comes out.

Making the Case for CTE

From: thevillagenews.com

I love to read the education writers' blogs in the Washington Post.  Many of them are very thought-provoking, even if they aren't always relevant to my situation.

So when I saw the title of this blog post, I dropped my interest in the basketball game on TV and read all of it, including the comments.  Surprisingly, nearly every commenter agreed with the premise of the post: not every student should go to a four year school and vocational education plays an important role in public education.

All I can say is yes, yes, yes!

Now, if only the leaders in DC and at the state level would see the value that we provide all students, four year college-bound or not.