What is my motivation?

For those of you who are familiar with me or my blog , you know that I teach.  This year I am teaching reading to middle schoolers that are at least 2-4 years below grade level.  The behavior is horrible.  Most days I wonder why I even chose the teaching profession.  The students do not care to learn.. Or at least that is what I thought.  One of my co-workers asked the students why they were struggling?  Many said it was their home lives.  Many said that they were so far behind that they felt they could not catch up.  Others said that they wanted to just play because they play at home.  Other students expressed that their parent felt that they would never amount to anything or be anything other than a failure.  Or in other words, just like their mother or father.  After asking them what the issue was, the students came up with solutions on how they can do and be better.  They all came up with a plan.  That was admirable, but sadly today, the same behaviors ensued.

This interchange made me think. Those classes that have the most behavior issues have about twenty five students in them.  If they only had about 15 students it would make it easier to meet their needs.  Instead they are packed into a small classroom like sardines. All across the nation education budgets are being cut.  No one cares about these minority students and their academic progress because it requires money to help them.  These students don't have the social skills or communication skills to ask for help.  Many of them lash out because they are unable to express their emotions properly.  They are angry, hungry, and many of them have been mistreated.  Part of our student population is homeless.

As a teacher, I am unsure of how to solve their issues.  I am overworked, underpaid, disrespected by the media, students, parents, and administrative staff. I have contemplated finding another profession because teaching has become a dumping ground.  Every time I have a horrific day and apply for a new job, I think about the impact on my students and I decide to stay a little while longer.  These kids have had so many teachers walk out of their lives after about 3-4 weeks of teaching them.  I don't wish to be in that number.  Sadly, I sympathize with the plight of the teachers that left.  (The behavior is really, really, really bad.)  I often hear the following song playing in my head throughout the day.\

I don't know what I am going to do about my children here at the school, but I am gonna go home over the weekend and come up with a new game plan.....

The next time you want to malign a teacher's performance, you probably shouldn't.

After the Morning After

It is the day after the day that the dems lost their 60 votes, and all are in a tizzy, except for the president. He isn't in a tizzy at all. He seems strangely calm. And now that I think about it, I understand why. Monica Coakley was a horrible candidate. The President will never say this, but I am saying it because it is so true. The lady was spectacularly bad. (Stepping down off soap box and sitting on the edge of it.)

That 60 votes didn't help him a bit with his constituency in Congress. The Democrats had the supermajority, but they didn't know what to do with it. I am sure it frustrated the poor man no end to see that the folks continually looked for ways to mess things up. Now that the super majority is no longer in place, there seems to be a bit of relief! Whoosah, that monkey is off my back. Now on to doing some other things. Congress will pass something, and I am moving on.

Now what does this mean for Obama's presidency? Honestly I am unsure. All I know is those folks that are claiming that he will be a one-termer are watching closely. The real question is does he secretly want to be a one-termer after looking at the mess that he inherited.

My president looks gaunt and thin and he is aging by the minute. My heart goes out to him because being the President has lots of perks, but in some ways it is like being a teacher. Everyone expects you to be Jesus, McGuiver, and Jack Bauer all rolled into one. Sadly if the outcomes are not good for everyone you become the devil incarnate and an incompetent babysitter. Hopefully at the end of his term, Obama won't get blamed for not corralling the children properly and causing their retention.

It's Testing Time!!!!

Today as I embark on day four of my testing adventure I am greatly saddened. I can remember a time when the only test I was required to take was the good old CAT(California Acheivement Test). Oh CAT how I miss thee. I don't know what the current incarnation of that test looks like, but I know that the old one was awesome. CAT didn't take forever and I liked scoring well on standardized tests. (So maybe the childhood me's attention was biased.)

You see my teachers did not do a lot of teaching to the test. We learned quite a bit in school, but we did fun things like activities for every holiday. We also had art class for more that a few weeks, and we had the option to learn lots of different things. I can remember planting plants, learning how to make jewelry, and I even had the option to learn cosmetology or woodshop if I so desired. College prep was indeed the highest class level I could take, and if I wanted to learn a vocation, I could do that too.

Now everyone has to be college prep or you are stuck in an occupational course of study. Sadly enough not enough vocational education is going on. I wish I had the option of learning computer networking when I was in high school 15+ years ago. It would make my job as a tech teacher much easier, but alas that wasn't happening then, and it only happens in limited places now.

Let's get serious about education reform, and ask teachers what they really want, and actually listen to what they are saying. Let us prepare our students to do professions that will earn them a decent living and help them become innovators and job creators. Pre test them and post test them and let the teacher teach the curriculum.

Testing a child every 3-4 weeks on a standardized test is not gonna get us much of anything in terms of valuable productive citizens. It's just going to get us more paper pushers. No offense to paper pushers, but you guys have the market cornered. Let's do what we need to do to get some innovation. ( Oh yeah, and they will be able to bubble in a mean answer sheet or take a mean online survey!)