You KNOW its the end of our school year when.....

You know its the end of the school year when......

* The office fails to issue an "absence list" for the past four school days.

* No one answers the phones in the office when a teacher calls with a question about
some mysterious quirk in the odd schedule for the day.

* The band and orchestra teachers take your students out of class for a week without
telling you about it.

* Students who yank another student to the ground and savagely kick the student on the ground are just sent back to classes with no punishment.

* The district spends thousands of dollars for a cheap stage for the new gym.

* Physical education teachers wonder if they have a new gym or if the locker rooms, PE equipment storage rooms are just some strange appendage to the new multipurpose room.

* Someone in administration tells students not to bring their daily planner, notebooks, pencils, pens, or anything necessary for academic instruction the last five days of the school year.

* Administration requires ALL teachers to turn in their semester grades at least ten days prior to when the school calendar says the semester is over.

* You hear complaints from teachers about snooty office clerical helpers who refuse to change grades upon teacher request.

* Parents call and express their amazement as to how their child is failing your class.

* You have a faculty meeting which includes a "lecture/discussion" about motivation of students.

* At the faculty meeting, teachers are reminded about "how hard the administration team is working" that last week of school.

* Some teachers are told that they must be out of their classrooms by Friday, because summer school classes will be using that classroom beginning Monday.

* Your school holds an assembly to honor the Seventh grade students who earned "Honor Roll". Forgotten/ignored by administration was the "Caught Being Good" drawing for a nice prize to reward those students who earned a "Caught Being Good" coupon by one of their teachers. Forgotten is the "Students of the Month" for May. Mentioned, but without accolades, is the seventh grader selected by teachers to be the "Outstanding" Seventh Grader. Missing was any member of our school board or the superintendent. Maybe "someone" forgot to tell them.

* Teachers leave school on Tuesday with knowing what the schedule for Wednesday will be because administration has yet to inform us.

Yep, its the end of our school year. How is/did your school year end ?

Thanks for reading my blog. Have a nice summer !

Student Performance......

Dennis Fermoyle, over at FROM THE TRENCHES OF PUBLIC EDUCATION has THIS to say.

"5. I believe too much of the blame for students who perform poorly is placed on the public schools themselves, and too little is placed on the parents of those students, the neighborhoods in which those students live, our culture, and especially the students themselves. (Public education critics view this as whining, but it's important, because as long as education reform ignores that and focuses solely on things going on inside the schools, any improvement is going to be limited.)

6. I believe that when education is a priority to the parents, the chances are good that the students will take their own education seriously. On the other hand, if parents don't make their kids' education a priority, the chances are that the kids won't either. (I recognize that there are exceptions to this, and that when parents care and the students don't, sometimes it is at least partially our fault.)"

Bravo Dennis. Well said.

Teacher Day 2008

Teachers, how was your "National Teacher Day?" Over the course of a week, the teachers union spent some dues money on memo pads and some of the cheapest quality ball point pens I have ever seen. We got a wood pencil from the retired teachers. Our school PTO, which is new this year, provided "the staff" with a luncheon featuring salad, cheesy potatoes, green beans, rolls and tri-tip. There were some cupcakes for dessert and sodas and bottled water to drink. Nothing what-so-ever was said about Teacher Day by the district or administration.

How was YOUR Teacher Day ????

Angry Parent UPDATE

Thank you for the words of support and suggestions for dealing with my youngest son's situation. After a discussion with my wife, we decided it would do no good to talk to the principal again, at this point. He won't be there in the future anyhow; he is retiring. This course of action is not usually in my nature, but as my cooler-headed much better half said, "lets just get him through the last few weeks." However, if I encounter the principal, I will say something about it. Hopefully my son will learn a lesson about dealing with persons in authority such as this teacher. And, my son will not be attending that school next year. He will either go to another nearby school offering as much of a GATE program as this school district offers, or maybe to another nearby school which has been designated as a new "Science and Math Magnet School". I have reservations about the still to be determined method of selecting which students will be allowed to attend this new magnet school. If it is based on grades and test scores, he is a shoe-in. If it is based on "ethnicity", his admission will be denied ( he's not Hispanic enough, Korean, African-American or from a war torn, poverty-wracked household ). The new magnet school will also have a new principal, someone whom I have been acquainted for some time and am not too sure of this person's leadership ability or ability to deal in a non-confrontational manner with parents or teachers. But, my son is hoping to go to this new magnet school, so we will apply. Oh, and for the second time in his five years of attending this school, my son was selected as his class "Student of the Year!". I asked him if there was much competition in his class for it. He rolled his eyes ( being a teen is just around the corner---yikes!), and said, in a drawn out voice, "No, not REALLY."

Math Fight

Our oldest son is a seventh grader at the top of his Algebra I class. The local high school math departments have decided that they will offer Geometry to students after successful completion of Algebra I. Then, if they go on, students can take Alg. II then Pre-Calculus. Anyhow, the local high schools don't want my son (or the other soon-to-be eighth grader in Algebra I) to walk across the street from their junior high school to take geometry class. The junior high wants to put the boys at computers with headphones to do a distance learning geometry class. The computers would by in an Algebra I classroom and the teacher would be concentrating on teaching Algebra I. So, the plan that two school district administrations have been able to come up with over the past six months is for these two boys to basically work independently to learn geometry.

My wife ( a credentialed math teacher ) and I are against this idea. We see no reason our son and the other boy can't walk across the street to the high school to take the math class they need. So now we have to fight with the local high school district. Yes, we could "home-school" our son in either algebra II or geometry. But that is not the point. Why is the high school district being so difficult to deal with on this? In the past, but not recently, there have been several eighth graders walking across the street to take high-level math classes they needed that were not offered by the junior high. I know also that there is an "eighth grade" home schooled student currently enrolled at one of the local high schools for Algebra II.

We welcome any ideas of suggestions for us dealing with this.

Parental Anger and Frustration

A sensitive, highly intelligent, creative child is having a rough school year. Not due to any academic demands, which if anything are not in the least challenging, but because the teacher seems to have no control over her class. The class is full of unmotivated, sluggish children. Much does not get taught because this teacher is dealing with all of the misbehavior. The teacher was punishing the whole class because of her apparent inability to deal with the more cronic discipline problems in her classroom. This teacher is not a new teacher, this teacher has 30+ years of experience. This sensitive, highly intelligent, creative child often comes home from school frustrated and in a bad mood. Too many times, the teacher punished the whole class. The teacher and the father talked about this. Teacher claims in all her years, she's never had such an "awful class". Parent offered a few disciplinary suggestions that were not well received. Finally, the father of this sensitive, highly intelligent, creative child spoke to the principal of the school. Most of the "all class" punishments stopped.

Meanwhile, the district where this sensitive, highly intelligent, creative child attends school made some changes with their GATE program. If this sensitive, highly intelligent, creative child was in GATE, he would attend another nearby school that at least offers some GATE instruction. So, the parents requested the child be tested for GATE. As expected, the child passed the test with very high marks. So, for NEXT YEAR, this sensitive, highly intelligent, creative child will be at a different school around hopefully, a better class of students.

Recently, this sensitive, highly intelligent, creative child came home from school in a sour mood. The father asked him to tell him about his day at school. This child replied, "No, because last time I told you about it, you talked to Mr. X (the principal), and he talked to Mrs. F (the teacher), AND SHE YELLED AT ME ABOUT IT.

I am that parent. Any suggestions?

Best of Education/Homeschooling Bloggers

Via a link over at Coach Brown's blog ( see my blog roll ), I found out that my blog has been nominated as a "Best of Education/Homeschooling" Blog. Thank you, whomever it was that nominated me. I am humbled.

California Cretins and Parasites at Work....Budget woes....

Note: RANT MODE: ON


California, the Golden State, has again gone broke. And among those who will greatly suffer will be the children. Education will suffer a big cut in funding. Of course it seems many sacred cows will not fall under the butchers knife; the various bureaucracy rats of the State Department of Education, the parasitic County Offices of Education, District Offices and Sports programs. Yep, those furthest from the children will be safe. Teachers, Librarians, Custodians, Nurses....they will go.

Anyhow, our State Legislative Analyst came up with a plan to free up $2.8 billion dollars for schools. This would be done by reducing from 43 to 4, the number of state categorical mandates. The educational community has shown huge support for this idea. However, the Democrat Assholes who run this state like it is their own feudal barony have said NO. Why? Because they want to raise taxes. They don't want to trim programs anywhere. No, RAISE THE FREEKING TAXES to fund their lavish pandering to special interests, overspending and social programs and whatever else they come up with.

The California State Assembly Education Committee was quick to kill any possibility of enacting these suggestions by our State Legislative Analyst. These elected parasites could not show up to their meeting to vote "no" on such a plan to free up that $2.8 billion dollars for the children of California. So they made sure it would die by either abstaining or being absent. THESE PARASITIC CRETINS ARE:

Gene Mullin (Committee Chairman), D - South San Francisco

Julia Brownley, D- Woodland Hills

Mike Eng, D - Monterey Park

Lori Hancock, D - Berkeley

Betty Karnette, D- Long Beach

Jose Solorio, D - Anaheim

Alan Nakanishi, R - Lodi

When will politicians do what is RIGHT ? Why hasn't CTA started a recall of these politicians?????? ( maybe calling them "politicians" is worse that calling them "parasites" ??? Whadda ya think ? )

So, if you know anyone in Education in California who was pink slipped, who has been told they won't be back next year to teach kids, let them know who is responsible.

I encourage you to try to contact CTA officers.... dsanchez@cta.org or you could write to him at their lavish HQ:

CTA State Headquarters
P.O. Box 921, Burlingame, CA 94011-0921
1705 Murchison Drive, Burlingame, CA 94010
Phone: 650/697-1400

Maybe California needs a new Bear Flag Revolt....one that sends home every elected official, provides for an interim government to oversee vital functions ( Law, fire, education, roads, tax collection, prisons ), holds a new State Constitutional Convention and new elections, with anyone who has held political office in the past 25 years being ineligible to run for any office, even dog catcher. Maybe we'd have a government by the people, of the people, and for the people, NOT the cretins we now have who prostituted themselves to the special interests and who hold their own self-interests to be more important that the people ( and children ) they are supposed to serve.

Rant mode OFF

Primary Politics....

Over at ScheissWeekly, Mamacita's blog, (at the end of my blogroll) she tells us about the joys of living in Indiana, a current primary election state and getting lots of harassing calls from the Clinton folks. I left this as a comment (feel free to use it to your hearts content ):

"I like messing with those live people who call. I ask, "Can I can get a ride to the polls?" They don't know.....its fun when they ask someone. I've had them tell me yes, someone can give me a ride to the polls. THEN, I ask about lunch. Again, they don't know. Several of them have actually asked some supervisor about lunch for voters.....and tell me "NO." THEN I ask about being paid for my vote. I tell them my ancestors in Chicago were paid $1.00 a vote, beer and food at each polling place they voted. Usually without asking anyone, the floundering campaign worker smuck tells me no, they won't pay for my vote. I ask why the Democrats have abandoned this old political tradition. Then I end the call. Yet, they keep calling. Who says elections ain't fun ?"

Have a Happy Day. Or just shake off today and wait for the new one.

Read it now or Later.....Summer Reading

Recently, I attended a church rummage sale. Lots of stuff available, some of it pretty good stuff. I found a very gently used copy of Frank McCourt's book, "Teacher Man." It was available for mere pennies (all you could stuff in a grocery bag for $1.00). So it went in my bag. Should I read it now, or wait until August, before the new school season begins again ?

What do you read over the summer? Do you read to escape ? Do you read to advance your skills ? Do you NOT read, because you read too much during the school season ?
Do you read a mix of stuff ? Share with us what you plan to read this summer !


Thanks for reading my blog.

Some Favorate Songs.....Rock and Country Edition

There have been several lists, long lists, recently about the worse songs. I happen to like several of the songs that were on those lists. But anyhow, here are some of Polski's all-time favorite songs, of the rock and country variety, in no particular order.

"Amarillo by Morning" by George Strait. Waltzing slowly in a country bar....or even in my living room with my wife.....great song. Gotta have some fiddle.

"Pancho and Lefty" Merle Haggard and Willie Nelson. I don't know why, just a GREAT tune.

"Backstreets," "Prove it All Night," "The River," "Jackson Cage," "Downbound Train"....Bruce Springsteen....THE BOSS. Tunes with SO much emotion, songs about life....Damn, I regret selling my tickets I had to see him and the E-Street Band back in 1981.....but I needed the money for my senior year of college....dang book prices !

"Gone Away" "Gotta Get Away" THE OFFSPRING.

Changes in Latitude, Changes in Attitude," "Come Monday," "He went to Paris". Jimmy Buffett. Songs to just kick back and relax to.....

"King Nothing," "Whiskey in the Jar," "Ain't my Bitch," Metallica. KRANK IT UP !

"Some Memories Just Won't Die," "HonkyTonk Man" Marty Robbins. Golden voice of the Phoenix Valley.... Did you know that he is really of Polish heritage too ?

"Everywhere," "Like we Never Loved at all" Tim McGraw with help from his wife. More tunes to slow dance to with my wife.....wherever.

"Hells Bells," Shook Me (All Night Long)," Dirty Deeds" AC / DC. KRANK IT UP !

"Refugee," "Running Down a Dream," "Zombie Zoo," "Need to Know," "Woman in Love," Skeeter and the Monkey Man*," "King of the Hill**," "Last DJ," Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. Ok, so not all of these is TP & HB's.....* was Traveling Wilbury's and ** was Petty with Roger McGuinn..... Some great rock and roll !

"1000 miles from Nowhere," "Streets of Bakersfield," " Ain't that Lonly Yet," Dwight Yokam.

"Amanda," Wurlitzler Prize," "Dreamin' and Drinkin'," "America," "Waltz me to Heaven"....Waylon. The only Waylon that ever was, or ever will be.

"Guess things happen that way," "Ballad of Ira Hayes," Highwayman*," "Man in Black," "Sunday Morning Comin' Down".....Johnny Cash. ( * Cash with Waylon, Willie and Kris)

"Beth," "Love Gun," "Rock and Roll all Night," KISS.

"Rocket Queen," "Sweet Child o'Mine," "Welcome to the Jungle," Guns & Roses...KRANK IT UP !

"Funeral for a Friend," "Saturday Nights Alright for Fightin'," "Crocodile Rock," "Sad Songs Say So Much," Elton John.

"Long Distance," "Misfits," "State of Confusion," Rock and Roll Fantasy," 'Hollywood Boulvard," The Kinks.

"She Used to love me alot," The Ride," "If that Ain't Country," David Alan Coe.

"Heart of Gold," "Rockin' in the Free World," "Old Man," "Like a Hurricane," Neil Young.

"Touch and Go," "Since I held You," "Doncha Stop," "Dangerous Type," The Cars.

"Richard Cory," "Beware my Love," "Medicine Jar," "Jet," "Band on the Run"....Paul McCartney and Wings.

"Beaches of Cheyenne," "Wild Horses," "Much too young (to feel this damn Old," "Friends in Low Places," "If Tomorrow never Comes," Garth Brooks.

There you have it, SOME of Polski's favorite tunes. Someday, I ought to get an iPod. I suppose I could figure out how those work. Are they durable ?

Thanks for reading this blog. Are any of these YOUR favorites? Tell us. What might you add to this list, if this was YOUR list?

Helpful or Coddling?

Teaching 7th graders, every school season I get a good number of them who have absolutely NO organizational skills. Our school gives each student a binder and dividers at the beginning of the school year. Most have backpacks to use for lugging their school stuff. The vast majority of students at my school come from self-contained classrooms where they have a desk to keep all their stuff. I don't know how much "battle" is waged by elementary teachers about students keeping their desks contents neat and organized, but as I said, many arrive to us with no organizational skills. I get the impression many of their parents are not active in helping them keep their stuff neat, organized etc.

The main problem many have with this is that when it comes time to turn in their work, they can't find it. Their assignment might be in their backpack, crammed amongst the remains of who knows what else in the pile of mulch found in many of their backpacks. Their assignment might be someplace in their binder, if they have a binder. But most have not been taught to take the five seconds it takes to open the binder, turn to the section of the binder for the class, unsnap the rings and put their assignment there. I and many other junior high teachers try to get them to do this, but with the high numbers of students we deal with, we are not always successful. And from the student point of view, it does not seem to matter too much to many of them. There are also those who simply shove their papers into the front pocket of their binder, or even worse, cram their papers into already bulging sheet protectors. OR, they just don't know where it is and cannot find the assignment anywhere in their neighborhood.

I wish my school gave us teachers more time to work with these kids, because for many of them, this lack of organization is killing them academically. One idea I am contemplating, for some of my students, is classroom folders. Folders they put work for my classroom and keep it in my classroom. But, this does not help them learn much responsibility. Nor does it work for any work they have to take home to complete that they did not complete in class or have for homework. Is this coddling them too much ? I can create some storage space in my classroom, if I need to. I have spaces that are being taken up by stuff I don't use and may never use or need. Getting rid of it is hard, since I tend to be a hoarder, but If I try, I can create space for student work folders.

What do you do ? I am open to suggestions. I probably won't begin anything new in the remainder of this current school season, but I am trying to think ahead for the next batch of kids we'll get. Please share your ideas !

Thanks for reading my blog.

College Admissions...for some ?

Over on a super blog, Elementry History Teacher, she has a post featuring questions about growing up in a privileged household. This got me to thinking about this. According to the questions on ELEMHISTTEACHERS Blog, I sure did not grow up "privileged". I have a goal for myself, to be able to do better for my son's than my folks were able to do for me (and my siblings...there were four of us). And according to ELEMHISTTEACHER's privileged home blog, I am, so far, meeting my goal....at about the "above proficient level".

Further jumbled thoughts led me to blog about an article in Saturday's San Diego Union-Tribune about the number of "local" college freshmen who must take remedial coursework. According to this article, "Students Deficient at being Proficient", 37% of the incoming freshmen in the CSU (California State University) system are not proficient in math, 46% are not proficient in English. Locally, 48% of incoming freshmen at Cal State San Marcos are not proficient in math, 53% not proficient in English. At San Diego State, it was 25% deficient in math, 32% in English.

I always thought that it was only the superstars, the really bright, the real "go-getters" who were able to be admitted at freshmen at most universities. Maybe those are the students who get in to the "higher" level Universities; Stanford, Harvard, Yale, MIT, exclusive private schools, etc. Not the state schools. Anyhow, I know it cost the university system millions of dollars a year trying to prep high schoolers for college and then, when they get to a state university, to provide remedial coursework for freshmen students. The article states, "The CSU system pours millions of dollars into outreach efforts aimed at making high schoolers more prepared for college, and it often bails them out with remedial classes when they're not. But the past seven years have produced only modest improvements in math among Cal States 23 campuses, and there have been no changes in English." So, are high school class expectations being watered down to get students through high school? One student quoted in the article said, "They don't make you think critically."

Do most students who think they want to go to college really do what they must do to be prepared for college ? For most, I doubt it. I know I didn't. I didn't take any challenging classes in high school. Unfortunately, in my home growing up, it wasn't expected. We were told to try, don't flunk anything, stay out of trouble, graduate and during senior year, also work. And I had to work harder in college to make the grade. Of my buddies from high school, of the gang of six of us, there are only two of us who are college graduates. Are things really much different today, than they were back in the late 1970's ?

My next question is, how are these students getting into these universities as freshmen with such deficiencies? Are these not the students with 4.0+ gpa's, lots of community involvement and perhaps some true athletic talent ? The statistics indicate otherwise. Is their admission the result of affirmative action? Years ago, a student, Backke or something like that, sued for admission to Cal Berkeley because affirmative action excluded his admission, even though his test scores made him much more qualified than many of those who were admitted because of their "ethnic background". Here in 2008, do this current statistics mean acceptance to a California State University still depend upon "who you are," not if you are qualified ?

Something to think about and pay attention to as my son's progress towards high school.

Thanks for staying with this rambling post. Yer comments is welcome!

Book Meme

I got tagged by ElemHistTeacher....called Book Meme. Here are the rules:

1. Pick up the nearest book
2. Open to page 123
3. Find the fifth sentence
4. Post the next three sentences
5. Tag five people and acknowledge who tagged you.

1. Nearest Book: My History 7 Textbook, McDougal Littell: "WORLD HISTORY: Medieval and Early Modern Times" which just happens to be sitting on the computer desk with me because I am supposed to be creating a "Pre-Reading" activity for my students, instead of playing with my blog and reading other teacher blogs.

2. Page 123, Sentences 6-7-8: "In addition to being a poet, Omar Kyayyam was a great mathematician. He drew on Greek ideas to further the work of al-Khwarizmi. He also wrote an examination of Greek studies on geometry."

I tag CaliforniaTeacherGuy, Coach Brown, Chanman, Mamacita, and MsCornelia.

What Hazards Lurk in YOUR classroom ?

Today, as I wandered my classroom full of students (34 of 'em in period 4), recording packet scores, I performed one of my ballet moves.....because I tripped on someones backpack and did a three hop down the narrow aisle on one foot. Thankfully and proudly, I have yet to fall down in my classroom due to tripping on a backpack, or kids foot or rip in the carpet. But I am sure many classroom teachers face such hazards. It is something that must be encountered at times in a crowded classroom of active junior high students.

Anyhow, I got to thinking of the other little hazards I have encountered this and every school year; paper cuts, cutting a finger or hand on a staple on a poorly stapled student paper and having an allergic reaction to some kid dousing himself with some nasty brew of "hot woman attracting" scent in lieu of showering or wearing clean clothing. I have also nearly slipped on wet concrete sidewalks because our custodial or gardening staff water these sidewalks. Actually slipping or tripping is a concern to me, my aging joints are already bad enough and I once nearly tore my left ACL. We must simply be carefully.

Fortunately, I don't think I have mold or mildew in my classroom. I don't know about asbestos. But I do think teachers deal with more hazards in their "workplace" than many working folks encounter. I have no idea when the last OSHA inspection of my school took place. At my school, we have never received training on avoiding "work-place hazards."

So, what hazards lurk in your classroom or at your school ?

Gone, Teachers, Gone

The latest edition of the NEA teachers magazine arrived in today's mail. Its feature article is about teacher retention. It notes that teachers, especially almost 50% of the new-ish teachers, leave prior to spending five years in the classroom. Why, you may wonder?

Lack of administrative support. Administrative folly. Lack of a living wage. Lack of respect. Lack of supplies. The problems with NCLB. Most of this is the usual stuff that the education community has cried about the past 15 or more years. What was not mentioned were the small percentage of new-ish teachers who put in a little bit of time in the classroom on their way to educational administration jobs.

So, same old story. Nothing has changed. Why Not ? My take on it is until the job is respected, until the politicians get out of the educational business, until the huge waste of educational dollars for non-teaching jobs is addressed, until the notion of having an education is valued, not much will change. I wish the federal government would get out of education; what part of the Tenth Amendment do our Federal executive and legislative leaders not understand ?

One thing I noted in the story, was that NEA declares their concern for this issue, and wants you to go to their website to see how well NEA has helped resolve this issue of teacher retention.....Lets see, I doubt it will say anything about NEA muscle forcing legislators to provide automatic COLA adjustments to teachers, just like Congress and Federal employees and many members of real unions get (such as the Correctional Workers Union here in California), or how they have made Congress stop penalizing teachers who also paid into Social Security when they retire ( If you earned a retirement check from a State Teachers Retirement System, you will not be allowed to receive your earned allotment of social security, even if you have paid into the s.s. system. )

Hope you're enjoying your Spring Break !

Thanks for reading my blog. Comments and suggestions for retaining teachers and making life better for us old-ish teachers are welcome.

How's Polski3 ?

Ibuprofen. Zinc. Echinacea. Tissues. No Rubetussin. Spring Break Starts Friday.

Educational B.S. 101.....California Budget for Schools

Several of our teachers went to a workshop ( not by choice; they were told to go as part of our herculean effort to stop being a failing school ). They learned something that will undoubtedly put an end to our school being labeled a failing school; that being that there are no more student activities involving "fill-in-the-blank" questions. No more ! These very same student activities in which students are tasked in putting (hopefully) correct data into a space to complete a statement are now, according to the highly paid consultant/presenter of this workshop for failing schools, to be known as "sentence framing" activities.

Ladies and gentlemen and others, here be your educational dollars at work.


As many of you know, especially those of you in California, Our "Guvanator" has promised that EVERYONE must feel the pain of California's lack of money. Just in today's newspaper, California Governor Arnold is quoted as saying, "I realize that providing a first-rate education system means having adequate funding." I read that many schools have provided lay-off notices to teachers. Many more lay-off notices for teachers than to administrators. Many schools have provided lay-off notices to their nurses, counselors and librarians. What I have not read is that many, if any schools, have informed athletic coaches that their sport will not be funded unless the state provides the necessary funds to include extra-curricular sports programs to the school. I also note that I have yet to read about any segment of our California State Department of Education or any County Office of Education reducing their great numbers of bureaucrats who do not teach children. Nope, it is those who work directly with California's children. Districts are cutting teachers and raising the number of children in classrooms. All hail our sports programs!

Thanks for reading my blog. Your comments are welcome!

Wadda Waste - Poor learning Environment ?

There is a long, quad type area between several of our schools buildings, probably about 150 feet in length. This area contains mostly dirt, with a few trees and patches of bermuda grass. Grass will not grow in the dirt, because the grounds people have never, in my 20 years at this school, bothered to do anything with it other than put water on it. Why won't grass grow? Perhaps because the dirt has been trampled by thousands upon thousands of junior high student feet over the years. Or, perhaps, the ground was saturated by some now-banned chemical herbicide eons ago when it was an agricultural field. I don't know, but this dirt is VERY compacted. Unless it is rototilled, nothing will be able to grow there. However, at my school, this area gets flooded on a regular basis, by the custodial/grounds people. Does your school made lots of mud too ?

Flooded dirt and mud making aside, What kind of view does this present to our students and whoever else sees and experiences this unsightly mess? Is this something that promotes a good learning environment for our students? IMO, no. Our students exit classes from the buildings around the mud/standing water, and see an example of how the school feels about them. Dirt. Mud. Standing water with a variety of trash in it. What's your school like ?

Thanks for reading my blog. Comments are welcome.