3 Weeks til Christmas Break & Half Way Through the Madness

First day back from Thanksgiving vacation and I was counting the days until the next vacation on the way to school this morning.
I passed out study guides for bimester exams today (as admin wished). The exams are in 2 weeks. The students looked at the study guides with a funny little expression of 'I know I will lose this before I ever think about looking at it again'. I'll go over it again at the end of next week when some of the students will start getting organized to review for the exam. I should start a scheduled review of some of the material and build on the information they know and what they find difficult based on ideas in my blog "Super Memo and the Question of What to Learn" (Oct. 26), but there is still a good bit to cover that is in the curriculum and on the exam (which has to be turned in this week). There is, also,  pressure to make the exams longer. The goal being to keep the kids occupied for the full 2 hours of the exam. The reality of course is it means there is more to forget and a greater probability they will forget more.
Three weeks til Christmas and half way through my last year of this madness which is considered 'education'.

Roatan & Review & Relaxation

I've just returned from a long Thanksgiving weekend trip to Roatan. A great bonus to overseas teaching is the often close proximity to wonderfully beautiful places to visit. I looked over the notes I made on the whiteboard on Thursday before I left for the flight. Vaguely ideas came floating back through the sparkling blue haze of  a weekend spent snorkelling over reefs, lazing on the beach, and reading while breezes gently rocked my hammock. Now I'm wondering how much review will I need to go through with the kids before my last Thursday plans make any connection to the concepts I'm hoping to build-on. Eighth grade is graphing data from an experiment we did, so I'll need to visually recreate the experiment and the collection of data. The 7th graders are presenting PowerPoints comparing two energy sources. I'll need to review the rubric for the presentation with an example in each category of the rubric. The 6th graders are completing a study guide on the atmosphere. They started posters of a scale drawing of the different layers of the atmosphere last week before the holiday. I can show them their scale drawings, and then we'll do a rousing thank-you to the troposphere. O.K., I'm all set for tomorrow. Now home for a nap and to get my energies back after the strains of vacationing.

The troposphere, chicken lips, & vomit

The 6th grade is studying the atmosphere. Today they started making a scale drawing of the layers of the atmosphere. I put a data table up on the board with the names of the atmospheric layers and how far above the earth each layer extends with a column to calculate how many centimeters they will draw the circle representing each layer if the scale is one kilometer equals one millimeter. We started with the troposphere as an example and they calculated that if the troposphere extended 20 kilometers (rounded to the nearest 10 and discounting that it is thinner at the poles which we have already discussed) above the earth on our scale drawing how far above the circle representing the earth would they draw the edge of the troposphere. Every team struggled to change 20 millimeters into 2 centimeters, but after that one they were quick to get the stratosphere's thickness of 50 kilometer  would be drawn as 5 centimeters. Before they started the drawing I wanted to impress upon them that the scale we were using for the earth was way off. I had them guess the diameter of the earth. The closest to the right answer got a point. The guess of 5 million kilometers won the point. One team asked me if a quadrillion was really a number before they guessed one quadrillion. No team could calculate how many centimeters the earth's real diameter of (rounded) 13,000 kilometers would be on our scale drawing. (I have 13 meter sticks ready to show them tomorrow.)
Before they started the drawing I wanted them to put the data table for the atmospheric layers, distances, and scale in their lab notebook. I had them start a team race to copy the information off the whiteboard. I asked if they would like me to sing them a song while they copied. They said, "yes." I began singing a silly little diddy called, "Chicken Lips". I had just finished the first chorus ( "Oh chicken lips and lizard hips and alligator eyes, monkey legs and buzzard eggs and salamander thighs, rabbit ears and camel rears and tasty toenail pies, stir them all together, it's mama's soup surprise") when one girl hopped up and ran to the sink and heaved her lunch. I've never had that reaction to my singing before. I'm not sure if it was my voice, the lyrics, or the loftiness of our discussion which caused the reaction - or most probably none of the above.

At the end so little really mattered

Before coming to school today to work on bimester exams I watched the movie "Evening". It is a good movie with a great cast. Vanessa Redgrave is dying and lamenting the mistakes in her life. Meryl Streep is an old friend of hers, who passes on the wisdom that when you get to the end  there is not a lot that really mattered. I'm stuffing questions on the exam to create something that will take kids about 2 hours to complete(in accordance with administrative wishes), but I can't say there is much I'm packing on these packets of paper that really matters.
This past week my girls' basketball team won their first game in the national tournament and then lost the next 2 to finish 3rd in our pool. We did not advance to the play-off round. As the players walked away from our last game (with a range of emotions from tears to cheerfully going off to chat with friends) I wondered if there had been anything that really mattered during the team's time together. One girl tried to get away from congratulating the other team's players after our final lost. Did my chat on being a good sport matter after I forced her to shake hands?
This past week I exchanged emails with an old friend and the former director of a school where I worked. He had written an article about the small things teachers and administrators do that end up (unknowingly to us at the time) making a significant impact on the lives of students and employees. He emailed me a copy. I'm trying to put some examples together, so if you happen to have any, add them as a comment to this blog.
This raises the need for a small addition to Meryle Streep's character's wisdom. At the end very little really mattered and often we aren't ever aware of the stuff that did matter.

Einstein, White Holes, & Stopping Time

I had a 7th grade student come in yesterday at recess to talk to me about relativity, black holes, worm holes, and white holes. I'd never heard of white holes before so he explained it a bit and then we googled it. The great ideas and theories (that I can only skim the surface of) he enjoyed spending the recess talking to me about.
Today at lunch we involved another student in his thoughts on traveling at the speed of light, distorting time, passing through worm holes, and coming out white holes in parallel universes. I was really impressed with how enthusiastic the new participant in our discussion was until he explained that he wanted to stop time on Dec. 17th right after Christmas Break started.

Evolving Drama of Middle School Girls' Basketball

The regional tournament is over. We lost our 2nd game in overtime 13-10 and our 3rd game 30-4. My 9 players are now down to 8. One of my attitude problems will be removed from the team today. In last night's game she was talking away after I asked for silence to go over the first quarter strategy with the starting 5. She has had a few warnings about this. I sent her to the bench. As the game began I asked her if she wanted to play. No response. I told her to let me know when she decided she wanted to play. Nothing the entire game. I checked with her twice more. Her teammates were begging her to play. We had 2 players foul out. One player got sent off bleeding, and it took us awhile to stop the bleeding and bandage the scrape. Everyone was playing their socks off. The team we were playing were good and we held them to 13-4 in the first half. They had destroyed the team that beat us 9-5 on Tuesday by a score of 60-0 on Wednesday.
Lots of good news along with the rather disappointing attitude of one of the players. The other attitude problem has come around and is willing to play anywhere I put her. A bit of irony popped up as now that the #1 attitude problem is gone, I need the former attitude problem to play guard like she originally wanted to. The player who has never seen a game of basketball and says she doesn't like sport got fired up in yesterday's game and was a motivated force to be reckoned with.
On the weird side two minutes before the game was to begin I had one player complaining to me that another player wouldn't put her hair in a ponytail like supposedly everyone in the team had agreed to do.
Although we lost all our games we have still qualified for the national tournament. Our first game is next Thursday. The telenovela I've been watching on tv is ending, but the real life drama of middle school baskeball is evolving around me.

Teamwork and Pride in a Good Defense

Last night my basketball team went down in defeat (9-5) to Freedom Academy. This has been my first sojourn into the world of middle school girl sport coaching. I am very proud of our defense.
On my team of 9 players I have 3 who play their hearts out, come to every practice, and will try anything you ask them. There are 4 who like being part of a team, and if there is nothing better to do, they will come to practice where they primarily like to shoot lay-ups, get water, and play full court 'run and gun'. Everything else is tolerated good naturedly. (One of these has told me she doesn't like sport and has never watched a game of basketball. She is on the team because her friends are.) Then there are the 2 who begrudgingly participate in drills while telling me what they want to do. If they are passed the ball in our end of the court they will heave it at the basket regardless of if someone is wide-open under the goal. I find my experience spoiled by the last 2. The thing that really got me last night was overhearing one of the 2 bad-mouthing one of her own players after the game. I had a word with her about being part of a team, but she wanted to argue that she was only saying that the player was missing easy shots. (With only 5 points scored we had a lot of players who missed easy shots. Have I mentioned how proud I was of the defense?)
Primarily I want them to have a fun experience, but I don't feel like I can ignore the negative and self-centered attitudes. They should develop some sense of teamwork and joy in being part of a team. They should be talking up how proud they are of their defense!
Tonight is another game.

What Have You Enjoyed Learning This Week

Saturday and I am about to start to work on the 2nd bimester exam after 2 hours of girls' basketball coaching. I was thinking this morning that there are only about 22 weeks of school left. I'm feeling a little sad about the approaching end. My wife and I were talking this morning about volunteering at a bi-lingual school in Ecuador when this school year and part 1 of retirement (Part 1 = Making Sure the Budget Works) are over
The internet news is full of the Republican victories in the elections and Center for Ed Reform is sending out messages of delight at the election of pro-charter and choice governors. My British wife asked what does it mean that the House is now one party and the Senate another. I answered, "It means that nothing really positive will be accomplished, but each party can now blame the other.Which is pretty much the way it was before"
On the school choice matter - as far as I can tell the choices still remain limited to academically-oriented, standardized-test-measured-for-meeting-standards" based education options. It becomes in many cases a matter of which school has finagled its admissions processes or testing procedures to create the illusion that the students are "achieving". When I say finagled, I also include private schools that have tuitions that ensure a student base from families that are academically and financially successful. As  a teacher myself I certainly don't want to dismiss the value of a good teacher, but there are a lot of us in all kinds of schools. We only have the students for something like 14% of the their waking hours and they retain at best 20% of what we imparted in a school year. That % dimimishes quickly as time passes.
I wonder when true choice will arrive. When I was director of a school in Togo, Africa, we had one day a week where for half the day all the students in grades K-9  were split into teams. The teams then went to different activities together. One time I was walking through the school as one team was making batiks with the art teacher, the French teacher was making crepes, local musicians were working with a team to make a band (drums, bass, guitar, singers), the PE teacher had a team working on a jump rope routine, the computer teacher had a team working on a website, and a teacher was working on drama skills and a play. I know there are magnet schools of choice out there, but when I read about how schools are given "stars" (like in Louisiana) for performance on standardized tests and if they don't measure up they lose their charter, I question the concept of school choice. When I was at the school in Africa, I longed for my own children to be participating in a school like I was running. (I was divorced and their mother had them in school in Florida.) That was always one of my goals when I was the administrator of a school. Make it a school I would want my own children to attend, and one of the most important things I would want for my own children is that they discover a delight in the learning process. Sadly the standardized testing emphasis doesn't measure how much a child has developed an enjoyment of learning.
Someday perhaps we'll evolve to a real situation of choice where a school can say this is our mission, " The child will develop a love of learning." The powers at the Department of Education powers will come to the school not with a box full of tests and answer sheets, but a question or two like the following: What have you enjoyed learning this week and why?  What are you looking forward to learning next week and why?
I am not so naive to believe that we can ignore basic skills, but a child who can write an articulate, thoughtful answer to the above questions possesses basic literacy and reasoning skills that indicate an sound education that was interested in developing a child who would find a productive place in society.

A Sucker for Cafeteria Food

I'm sitting here eating the peanut butter and jelly sandwich I prepared for my lunch after having already eaten the fish filet lunch complete with potatoes, rice, bread, and veggies prepared by the school cafeteria. Over the years I have found one of my great health challenges has been avoiding school lunches. It has been said that I have an uncanny knack for quickly making friends with the kitchen staff for the ulterior motives of gettting larger portions. What can I say? I'm a friendly person.
I'm going to wander home now, put my feet up, and dream about a nice plate full of Miss Martha's red beans complete with an extra sausage.

I Need My Head & Feet Examined

Back several weeks ago I saw the PE teacher (Profe) coaching both the boys and girls basketball teams, so during a foolish moment at a faculty party I volunteered to help. Last week he took me up on the offer and with the parting words, "We lost all our good players last year," put me in charge of the girls' team.  The boys' seem to have a chance at the national championship.
Yesterday we began working on our offense for the regional tournament that starts next Tuesday. I introduced the 'screen' to the girls. The concept is swishing around in their gray matter for the first time for most of them along with the thought that the coach does not know what he is doing. Their previous offense seems to have been to stand in one place and try to throw the ball over the heads of the opposition to someone (hopefully) on their own team. Half way through a lethargic practice where team members would run over to Profe who would send them back after telling them I was their coach now, I called a team meeting. I explained that Profe had asked me to take on coaching their team, but it would not hurt my feelings in the least if they felt they didn't need me. But if I stayed, practice and the team would be run my way. I sent them off to have a team meeting to decide with another reminder that giving me the axe would not hurt my feeling in the least. Their discussion went on for a little longer than I would have expected, but they came back with the decision that they wanted me as coach.
Last night I woke up at 1 a.m. and couldn't get back to sleep until 4 with annoying thoughts of what players would be best where and how to take advantage of what skills the team has and on and on and on. Also I needed to give myself a good foot massage after 2 hours of running up and down a cement basketball court.

Ziplining, Cutting up Bugs, & My Bucket List

This past weekend I ziplined over a waterfall. Since the movie "The Bucket List" I have looked at experiences as either something to be included on my unwritten 'bucket list' or not worth the bother. The ziplining experience was on the edge, but the occasion presented itself and the price was right (300 lempira = about $15). Everything was going fairly well for the first few runs even though I soaked my bottom zipping over a rapid and came up a little short and had to haul myself along the line on one of the runs. I was about to launch myself on the next to last run over a very impressive waterfall when the guide gives me a bit of an "oops" look and tells me to hold on while he reties the harness. Obviously all worked out well as I'm writing this and you are reading it.
My wife was taking someone to the airport today and I took her 3rd grade class while she was gone. The 3rd graders had brought me a giant caterpillar last week which promptly proceeded to spin a bit of a cocoon and go into its pupa stage when I put it in the aquarium. I decided to do a lesson on insects while they were with me. I had a few wasps that had died on the window sill and my compost heap is always full of larvae. I gave each team a wasp and a larvae. They cut the wasp into 3 body parts and separated a wing, leg, and antennae onto a microscope slide and had a look. The teams used the website http://bugguide.net/ to try to identify the insect. They then watched the 'worm' larvae crawl around a bit and tried to guess what it was. At the end as they were leaving one of the 3rd graders looked at me and said, "That was cool!"
That wasn't on my bucket list, but I think I will try to get another, "That was cool!" out of a third grader.