Making the Interactive

http://www.teachertube.com/viewVideo.php?video_id=47452&title=Science_Notebook&ref=mwarner1968

Another new school year

Nothing really interesting, just another new year.

Duncan, charter schools and me

I really have nothing against charter schools. I just don't think they are the salvation of public education.

Arnie Duncan does. Now a look at his record quickly shows his record as CEO of Chicago's public school was less than stellar. His idea of shutting down poorly performing schools (what the heck does that mean?) and starting over as charter school misses the point. The schools are a symptom. I would like to see the schools where this has worked.

Charters over all do about as well as public schools, but when success are cited, very often there is more to the story, like in New York City, where the populations of charters schools do not match those of non-charter public school concerning homeless, ELL and Special needs.

While I am asking, how about adding other items to our international test scores, like health care, teacher planning time and crimes committed by handguns.

Everyone seems to have an idea on what is wrong with education, and what it should look like. Like this Article titled "If We Didn't Have the Schools We Have Today, Would We Build The Schools We Have Today?" And Tapscott points out that someone from the last century would not recognize a modern ER or Airplane cockpit but would fit right in a modern classroom. I am not sure that is a fair comparison, the same person would recognize a bank lobby or restaurant, and while the physical structure is the same, many of the methods of teaching have changed. I am thinking of differentiation, cooperitave learning and megacognition.

But, to play the devils advocate, the materials supporting my geophysical text are are very prescribed and if allI did was teach with them it would be bad.

Should we tear now all our schools and start over. This is misleading questions because it is not going to happen. It is a fun mental excersize, but let talk about what we can do to change what we have.

I got it

The article Let's Just Put them In Jail 24/7 is a great read. Although being paid about 45% more is attractive, what's that? No extra money? They don't expect teachers to work that extra time for nothing do they?

The Beatings Will Continue Until Moral Improves

I read a blog post titled David Warlick is Angry I tried to get to the original post, but failed, but this gives me a start. My school is going to e-time, a 1/2 hour period everyday for interventions in reading, writing and math. I get kids in science about 43 minutes a day. I recognize the need, some kids are below where they need to be and spending more time makes sense. But is there a cost? How many kids will retreat further into themselves? How many will accept they they 'Just Dumb" and stop trying. A hard thing to measure. A here is where I am torn, I think my kids could do a lot better if they would try harder. They think they are working hard. They are not. Can I make them work harder? I work hard to motivate, but motivation is hit and miss, some seem unreachable. Doing the same stuff longer does not seem to be the answer. I hope the time spent with smaller groups by specialists (math and language arts teachers) will show some results. I expect I will havestudents who test as profient, a lot of them. I asked to teach electronics or robotics and tie in math and technical reading. All interventions had to be based on reading or math. There might be a bright side, maybe I can use this time to connect with some of the kids who really love science and mentor them.

Teaching. Is it just a Job?

Some thoughts for you. Teaching can be very hard. So hard that 50% of teachers are gone after 5 years.

From Teaching in the 408
http://roomd2.blogspot.com/

I completed three hundred percent of my TFA commitment. I beat the 0-5 year departure curse. But I resigned and I’m leaving. Around the blogs, around the policy world, around the union halls, folks cast about for the reasons why people like me do things like this.

This is why I didn’t.

I wasn’t prepared.
I wasn’t, but that’s not why I’m leaving. I got through the don’t-know-what-I’m-teaching-and-don’t-know-how-to-teach-it-anyway phase, figuring stuff out, thinking about why things did and did not work, selecting areas to get better continuously, and working really really hard. It’s this last part that bears at least some mentioning. My lack of specialized, focused preparation – a lack that is close to near-universal for those of us manning classrooms in the world of high need urban English Language Learners

from dy/Dan
http://blog.mrmeyer.com
He is writing about the movie Freedom Writers

I wish I could relate, I do, but I'm with Scott Glenn: this is just a job.

It's an unromantic sentiment that'll never find traction in a group that obsessively cultivates its image as self-sacrificing, difference-making caregivers. But if I could print any slogan on a mug to get me through an eighteen-hour day, it'd be those five words.

This is just a job.

This is just a job, which means my objective has been well-defined, though we may disagree on how best to measure it. This is just a job, which means I was hired to teach students a particular skillset.

There isn't any romance in my objective and MTV will never make a movie about really effective phonics instruction, but there is extraordinary, enduring value in effective phonics instruction, in learning, in breaking life's possibilities wide open for students by teaching. There it is: I have been hired to teach. Any inspiring, difference-making, role-modeling, surrogate-fathering, or dance-partying is strictly incidental.

I strongly urge you to seek out those who teach and read them and listen to them so you know what you are getting into.

The first day of the rest of my life

Barrack Obama is now my president. I watched his inauguration and I was moved. Some how I feel just a little more at home in my own country. My president promised that I can have both security and personal freedom. My president told me we are in a crisis and it will take hard work and sacrifice to get through. The old man at the gym said that he was going to go talk to Jack Daniels instead of listen to his new president. A student said he hoped he got shot during the ceremony. Another teacher said that now blacks don't have any more excuses. We have a lot of hard work to do and sacrifices to make.

Saturday

Well, I gotta say, I don’t know where this thing is going. I hope to be posting on a regular basis. Part of the purpose of my starting this blog is to open up topics.
All my other blogs are purpose driven, built for a topic or a class. I want to use this as a sieve for all the random thoughts that swim in my head.
I always wonder why people make the wrong decisions. For example, I love to eat and I eat a lot. I have a lot of experience eating. I know how much I can eat comfortably I can pin point to an exact bit when I will start to be full, right exactly when I will start being bloated. Yet, time after time I will keep eating. My wife will eat a sugary snack and later have a stomach ache. My friend will go out and drink heavily. All these activities have immediate, short term consequences, yet we will still do them. No wonder people won’t save money, stop smoking or pass on the bacon, things that are only helpful years later.
Anyway, I am shooting for 187 pound during wrestling season. Today I had a chicken sandwich and veggies for lunch, rather than a burger and fries. I went to the gym and spent an hour on the treadmill rather than nap. Although the nap might have been a good idea, I feel better when I get enough sleep.
Sleep, I have had on and off insomnia for years, the kind where my mind would not stop running. I would get up and read until 1:30 or 2:00 then go to sleep. In the last two weeks I have had two nights when I never went to sleep. Nope, no sleep at all. One night I blamed on decaf coffee I had with dinner, then it happened again. Weird. I have noticed it occurs more often as I get older. Exercise seems to help, and chamomile tea. Yes, chamomile tea. My doctor said try it and I did, although I got to admit it sounded like woo to me. But it helps.

Does Every One need a Science Education?

I teach science. I changed careers to teach science, I could be doing something else, but I teach science because I love science. When I started I was sure everyone should know science, lots and lots of science, just because it is so fun. Turns out not everyone agrees with me. It took me a few years to realize that some people, maybe most people do not find science as mind numbing wonderful as I. They might be incredible readers and gifted writers but they don't get science. So now I am asking myself the question that starts this post. Does everyone need a science education? I do, my doctor does, but honestly, does the American History teacher need to know about Newton's 3 laws or the English teacher about teleophase?

Of course everyone needs a science education. But does everyone need to be educated to be a scientist? No. Most people, and I freely admit I don't know what that really means, could get by with a basic understanding of the human body, disease transmission, nutrition, and the scientific method. Of course there is more that could be listed, and many would add lots more until we get to the point that there is to much to teach well and science teachers skim the surface of everything. In other words a lot like today.

I will go on record as saying I think that a child with an interest in science can get a great education in science in my school system. What about the kid that doesn't? Maybe we should acknowledge that everyone is not going to grow up to be a scientist and identify the skills and knowledge most Americans need. A science for citizens class. The teachers of this class would need to be skilled in tying concepts to real life and reinforcing skills like gathering information on topics. We would teach people how to find out what they need to make informed decisions when buying or voting. I think that this might lead to a resurgence of interest in science among the general population. Teach less science and people become more interested? Yes, if we teach how to access the science that people are interested in and not shove a ton of complex and abstract down their throat. If we build understanding they will come.

The science people, and I fully acknowledge this borders on elitism, would be taught a much more in depth curriculum with more resources spent on them. These would the scientists of tomorrow. They would get in depth investigations assisted by teachers who are true experts in their field.

There are problems of course, first we would have to get past the present mindset that all children are the same and need to know the same subjects to the same level of mastery. If an eighth grader is spending three hours in science, maybe they will not learn to write a haiku. The next problem is one of identifying just who are the future scientists, this is the one that haunts me. I do not want to turn away someone who has an interest, but maybe a slow starts. A friend of mine was special ed all through school, struggled to read, barely got in to a college, but once he was there worked hard and became a chemist. Some kids might might be put in the science track. I hate this, but I wonder are there kids now who do not go into science because of the mile wide inch deep curriculum or how many possible physicists are selling insurance because they didn't stick with science until their senior year to take the physics class.

I hope to flesh out what this system might look like in my future posts, please let me know what you think.

First Blog of the New Year

Well here I am am world. I am a 40 year old middle school science teach with enough ego to think maybe, just maybe I have something useful to say about, education and science. I live in Grand Junction, CO where I enjoy my life and my job. I am happily married with a beautiful 5 year old son who is apparently placed here to teach me patience.