One Week of Holiday Left

One week from today and I'll be back in the classroom. I opened the folder I brought with me of lesson plans for the first weerk back today. I got a couple of good ideas. 8th grade will have the project to try to make some useable object out of recycled materials and 7th grade will have to do the same thing. I suppose that is really only the same idea used 2 times. The 8th grade will have the twist that their recycled item must be sold to raise $ for a charity to make the world a better place. Now I need some ideas of what they could make. I think I will recommend making tiny wheelbarrows for carrying specialized items if students are stuck for ideas.
As I approach the end of my teaching/education services career (only 5 months to go) and the end of my life (hopefully at least 20 more)  I think occasionally about what will be my legacy. Currently I am reading 3 Cups of Tea. I am at the beginning of the book but I already have the feeling that Morgensen's generativity will be overwhelming. Is starting a school for kids who are eager to have the chance to learn a great act of sacrifice and kindness? It reads like it will definitetly be in 3 Cups of Tea.
The idea of the holiday of Christmas is unsettling for me in a few ways, There is the wonderful idea of a holiday that inspires acts of random kindness and sharing, but then there is the commercialsim of the celebration and even the idea of giving. I heard an ad something to the effect "let our car brand give you the gift of saving when you buy our brand nex model XLG."
I've got more to add to my Christmas ramble - but for now , to all a good night.

The Last Christmas Show

In an hour or so I'll start the intro to Rudolph on the keyboard and accompany my wife's third grade class as they sing about and act out Rudpolph's rise to glory among Santa's reindeer for what is probably my last participation in a school Christmas show.
As I think back to Christmas shows past not many come clearly to mind. One in Turkmenistan where our biggest space was the entrance foyer of the school. It was close to -15 and snow and freezing wind blew in to add a special winter chill to performances everytime a parent arrived late. The one that particularly stands out in my mind from 30 years ago was in a large auditorium in Guayaquil, Ecuador. A friend (also native to New Orleans) and I were playing jazzed up Christmas carols on piano, trumpet, and with another friend on clarinet in between children's acts. The crowd had a very hushed and shocked look on their faces as we launched into a jazzy version of "Silent Night". There was some concern that we might be offending the religious sentiments of the crowd. As we finished the song to no applause an earthquake rattled the building. We weren't sure if it was coincidence, the way a higher power might applaud, or a message from on high that "Silent Night" should not be jazzed-up. (I've jazzed it up a few times since and have not had a similar response, so I'm going with the coincidence theory.)

My Last Childlike Christmas Expectation

It's the last day of bimester exams. Tomorrow is what admin likes to call a 'regular school day' filled with excited kids and Christmas parties. Friday is a half-day made up of a 2 hour (hopefully) Talent/Christmas Show, and then a dash to the airport.
I feel like I am especially excited this year. It's not that the teaching has been hard or the kids have been especially challenging. I think it might be because this could be the last time I have the thrill of getting a nice long vacation for Christmas.  Next year when I am retired from teaching  what will I be anxiously waiting for this time of year - Santa to come? That sleigh took off years ago. There is the joy of the season, and I can definitely get into that, but that childlike joy of eagerly counting the days, hours, and minutes until the special expected moment suddenly happens will be gone.
I'm going to ride this excitement for all its worth. I woke at 2 a.m. today and couldn't get back to sleep. I checked the packing of my suitcase and searched the house for other stuff I might want to take back to the USA. Maybe I'll stay awake now until I get on the plane.

Wake with Pleasureable Anticipation & Desire to Get Things Done

Last night I was reading the Sebastian Faulks book A Week in December . A character was described as someone who was not  "waking with pleasureable anticipation and desire to get things done". I pondered if I was such a person. With a week left before Christmas holiday begins I'm waking with the pleasureable anticipation that at the end of the school day I can check off that I am a day closer to hopping on the flight to Miami. I have a list on my whiteboard of the things to get done before I leave. I have a keen desire to get them done and erased.
I don't think this is the type of pleasureable anticipation Faulks was suggesting. He was describing the somewhat sad case of a man without passion for his daily work and I am dreaming of the anticipation of escaping from my daily work for a holiday. I believe I am like most who as a vacation approaches summon delightful expectations of the days and daze of holiday freedom to do nothing more than lie in a hammock and read a book -even if you never get close to a hammock.
When I return will I have a pleasant anticipation to return to the classroom and get some teaching and learning done? I'm enjoying putting together January plans for lessons and experiments on matter and density for 6th grade, preparing 7th grade for a star-gazing activity at their annual sleep-over, and expanding 8th grade thinking on the fundamental forces and particles that make up the universe. My return plans are even influencing what type of book I might take to the hammock.

Water On, Electricity Off, Imminent Collision

Three days without water and today the electricity is supposed to go off. School treks on to bimester exams next week and then 2 weeks of holiday where we can all enjoy and forget.
Night before last I read an article "The Sky is Falling" by Gregg Easterbrook about near earth objects that pose potential risks of colliding with earth. Before reading this article I had just finished a book by Clive Cussler (sp?) which involved in the plot a comet colliding with earth 7,000 years ago. I had a look at the website Easterbrook mentions as showing where NASA keeps a list of near earth objects (http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/risk/ ). It is a fascinating list.
I have to set up for 7th grade lab on magnetism and run to the toilet before power goes out in 15 minutes which will shut down the pump and end the lovely free flowing water that spurted from pipes this morning. More on our inevitable collision with some sizeable chunk of space rock in a later blog ... hopefully.

Shocking Optimism

Seventh grade had a test on electricity today. As always they could bring in a page of notes to use on the test, but they would only get a maximum of 80% on  the test if they used notes. Of 30 seventh graders, 7 used notes, and one of these still got 38% on the test. I realize that the information on electricity will play little to no part in the rest of their lives (except when they might have it in another science class), but just for the sake of your own ...( I don't know) ... peace of mind (?)  if you are going to make a page of notes, wouldn't you make the page so they answer the questions that you know are going to be on the test and so that you can read them.
There were another 7 students who didn't make notes and didn't bother to study. After the test while the class was working on the next study guide on magnetism, I called students up individually to have a look at their grades before next week's bimester exam. The school's grading program lets me put in grades and see how it will affect the final average. As I spoke with each of the seven who didn't study, I explained that the average I had for them didn't include the grade from the test on electricity that they had just taken. They all confessed that they didn't do well.  I asked them what they thought they had gotten on it. Some would ask me how much each question was worth and then with a thoughtful look on their face try to work out what they had scored. Others would just blurt out a percentage. Regardless of which approach they took they all thought 60%. The grades of the 7 ranged from 24-56%. When I asked what they wanted me to plug in for their probable bimester grade, they all wanted 90%.

Attitude vs Pedagogical Skill - Which is the Better Inspirer

Not too long ago I had an email from someone who was the director of a school where I worked in the early 90s..He had written and article on "Making Meaningful Moments in Kids' Lives". I emailed him asking for a copy. The premise of his article was that often the meaningful things teachers or administrators do are not the conscious pedagogical moves we make, but the caual and  'hidden curriculum' interactions we have with students. After thinking about this I added my idea that it is the attitude we bring to the classroom or school that is the greatest influence on how students learn to approach learning and life. The attitude effect is more significant than any content, no matter how skillfully we present it. (There is no debate that the proper marriage of the two is the art of teaching and the optimal desired approach.)
Now I'm reflecting on teachers I have known who had great attitudes, but had problems with management or organization. I can think of a few who struggled keeping a great attitude as they faced daily challenges of kids who were unruly and uncaring. This is causing me to rethink my view on attitude being a greater influence than pedagogical skill - but I'm going to be a little stubborn with this idea this afternoon. The teachers who have great attitude and weak skills still find a way to inspire some students who have come to class receptive to learning. With a poor attitude and great pedagogical skill you will manage a class well, but not be as effective at inspiring life changing learning.
On Thursdays I take a student who I individually teach for math the other 4 days of the week to the regular 8th grade math class. The math teacher just graduated (about 2 weeks ago) from engineering school. He is young and the students enjoy interacting with him, and he is genuinely positive about learning and what he is trying to teach. He had not had one day of pedagogical training nor a minute as a student teacher before he started here in August. Administration has not assigned him a mentor, nor (as far as I can tell) spent any time in assisting him in developing skills at management or planning. He has a great attitude, but it is being eroded by what he sees as the students' inability to cooperate with what he is trying to do. He has no alert for class attention before starting instruction, no clear behavioral expectations, no system of consequences that are consistently followed, no planning for students who finish assignments ahead of other students. Will he be inspiring and successful if his attitude is one that frequently erupts with comments about how the behavior and management problems are the fault of kids who "act like kindergarteners" - a phrase I have heard him use with the 8th graders in class.
Thursday I bought this topic up to him and offered to help.

Absent from the Faculty Christmas Party

Friday afternoon and I am blogging instead of going to the faculty Christmas party. I skipped last year, also. The organizers like to have it in a "nice" place in San Pedro which entails a 30 minute to eternity traffic battle into the city and an hour to eternity traffic battle out again. There was a little pressure to attend - which is nice that people want you there and aren't ambivalent to your not going. In the end if you don't want to go to a party, you shouldn't go just to please other people though - unless the other person is your spouse.

The Confusion We Find under Rocks

A few weeks ago the 6th grade was studying earth cycles and I had an activity where they were to calculate how many hours and minutes from sunrise to sunset. What a mess I discovered when I kicked over that rock! Of the 19 kids in the class (after spending a couple of class periods on the activity with clock manipulatives in hand) I have only one person who is competent at it and about 5 who can calculate relatively simple ones (sunrise 6:15 am and sunset 7:30 pm). There are several who can not figure out how many minutes there are between 6:15 am and 7:00 am. I believe some are used to ignoring a concept they find difficult because they know the teacher will move on soon enough. They are happy to daydream the period away and take a bad grade or two. They are about to have a new experience. On Monday the chart will go up  which will show which kids that master the 'new' concepts. Those that don't master (90% on a test) will have these kinds of problems on every test from now on until they show mastery. 
Another rock I kicked over this week is metric conversion, and a rock I kicked over today is estimating mass. The kids were finding the mass of air in a balloon. I passed around a weight that had a mass of 250 grams. We  talked about how it would take 4 of those weights to make 1 kilogram. Then I asked them to predict what would be the mass of the air in a balloon. I had about 4 students guess something in the neighborhood of 5 grams or less, but the rest were well over 3 kilograms.