No Mas

I guess I reached some sort of breaking point. Most recently, a building rep meeting was held when the junior high schools in our district were having parent conference week. When I complained about this to our locos Madam President, her snippy and snide response was for me to "change my schedule so that I could attend the meetings!" As if I have any power to reschedule parent conference week?

Then, in a, lets call it a rules dispute, I let another teacher know that it was not a good idea to violate the school policy regarding students wandering loose on campus, being out of class without a pass. Much less interrupting other classes. The response from this teacher? A complaint to the principal that I was harassing her! F THAT!

So, I am no longer a building rep, nor political action chair for the loco. I resigned from both. I guess my help and services were not wanted anyhow; only one teacher on my campus asked me why I was resigning. And Madam President, she didn't even ask why I was resigning. What the F has she learned after attending CTA Presidents Conferences at Aslomar for the past two years????

For me, another step toward becoming an agency fee payer. This group is not worth the stress or probable administrative attention for trying to keep the admin right on our ever eroding contract.

Because its my job.....Try something different

Please note: This is sort of a rant, but there is information about teaching that some of you few remaining readers might find useful in your classrooms.

I spent two hours after school today because my students are not doing what I hope and expect them to do. On Monday, they were assigned to study and fill in a chart regarding the "Causes of the American Revolution." I kinda think that's important to know prior to learning what happened during the American Revolution and its results. So, yesterday, we spent most of each class period going over what should be on their charts; the various Acts, what each entailed and WHY THE COLONISTS WERE UPSET OVER THESE PIECES OF LEGISLATURE. Then, as an assessment, they were to create a 4x or 6+6 (4x = a list with three pictures and explanation as to why the chosen laws were a problem for the American colonists, a 6+6 is almost the same thing, but no list and you have six pictures with explanations for each). Those assessments were due by the end of class today.

Anyhow, the results were bad, even for most of these students. If I had to label what I got from 95% of them, it was "Illustrated Definitions of the various Acts of Parliament...." Very, very few had any data about how the taxes made things cost more, about trade restrictions, about justice and fairness, or even that battle cry of suffering "Taxation without Representation". Its like they learned NOTHING yesterday when we went over their charts. I saw them filling them in. [ Note: A key problem with many students is that work that is done is then put into a binder, folder, backpack or .... and NEVER read or looked at again. Even if they need it for some project. ]

So, part of my two hours after school today was spent creating an activity for next Monday (we have Vets Day off, AND Friday); ten statements expressing Colonial opposition views to the various acts of Parliament for the purpose of creating revenue to pay the expenses of the French and Indian War and then to punish certain colonies for their misbehavior. We'll see if this works. The Damn pacing guide gives us little room for reteaching or much extended time to make some of this more relevant. Anyhow.....


Thanks for reading this blog. I hope you got something from it, even if it is reassurance that "MY students aren't like that," or maybe, "Damn, its not just MY students!"

Have a happy Veterans Day.

Should I stay or should I go (or GO) ?

We are beginning another contentious time in our perpetual negotiations. There was a building rep meeting scheduled by our Madam President that conflicted with the Parent Conference Week for the district's two middle-level schools. Several people urged Madam President to change the date for the building rep meeting. She refused and wouldn't even consider it. "We created this calendar back in August," she said. If YOU had a problem with the date, YOU need to change YOUR schedule!" is what she almost yelled at me after I told her neither I or my building's teachers appreciated her refusal to change the date to a day when building reps from ALL THE SCHOOLS could be in attendance. It was pointed out to her that Mr. Polski3 could NOT change the district scheduled Parent Conference Week. She said nothing. She just glared at me.

Just a note about the building rep meetings; at an average meeting, maybe 2/3's of the schools have some teacher there to represent them. There are often barely enough BR's to vote on anything that needs to be approved or voted down. Usually, one of the "officers" votes as a BR. This Madam President rarely visits her schools. I think she has been to my campus once, and that was because she had to be there to accompany the state vice president who came down to try to talk to the 1/3 of the teachers at my school who have opted to be "agency fee payers," because of their disgust about the local association and the State unions stand on political issues that have no bearing on our salary, benefits or working conditions.

I could go on about how inept this bunch of union "leaders" is, but I don't have time and I don't know if blogspot has the bandwidth for it. Several people has asked me/ urged me to run for President of the local. I don't know. I waver in my thinking about trying that or becoming an agency fee payer myself. In the past ten years, no one for outside of their corrupt union clique has been elected to any local association position. When someone did garner the votes necessary, they called the election "INVALID" and did a "re-vote" which was done "properly" that time. Attempts to change this local association to make it more democratic and inclusive have led to changes in the bylaws to prevent such things as election of negotiators and security for ballot boxes (what would you think about every single ballot from one school that had the same name as a write-in candidate, written in the same hand with the same writing instrument?) I saw it myself. Oh, Madam President loves her summer week in Monterey at the Calif. Teach. Assoc. Presidents Conference and the many meetings in Palm Springs, Las Vegas and Orange County ( all close to what some believe to be good shopping and restaurants....)

What do you think? Should Polski3 run to be President of his local? Or should Polski3 save his sanity and tell the union to F-off and become an agency fee payer?

DO YOU ?

Did you have anything GOOD happen to or for you this week? Please share some good news. I have none.

No, we can't consult a calendar.....!

Does your school have a week of minimum days for teachers to conference with parents? Does your school have district math and writing assessments? Does your school do these two things at the same time? Mine is.

Teacher in our district Murdered

Early this am, a sixth grade teacher at one of our feeder schools on her way to work in her car and was rammed by a truck driven by her husband/longtime boyfriend. He got out of the truck, went to her car, emptied his pistol at her, killing her. He then tried to kill himself but the pistol was empty, so he went back to the truck, reloaded, walked back to the vehicle with his dead wife in it and killed himself. Their ten year old son was there. Say a prayer for this poor boy.

Are you a Tired Teacher ?

I've read several places on education blogs about how tired teachers are....and it is just towards the end of September! Whats going on?????

School just began; teachers should be charged up and zipping along in fifth gear. But it seems that is not the case? Did that wonderful "pep you up stuff" in coffee disappear? Are we just so beaten down by testing? Beaten down by being repeatedly told "its teachers fault those students are not learning," your school is "under-performing," you are a "program improvement" school. In the mail today, we, (Mrs. Polski and I), received a letter from one of my son's schools telling us that it was in "Program Improvement, Year 1," and that if we wished, we could talk to the school district about moving him to one of the "non-program improvement schools." Is it the lack of accountability for students and their parents?

Is it the demand to do more with less resources, more students, more student needs? Is it the frustration of ever rising cost of living and paychecks that are ever being reduced by multi-years of no COLA, more taxes, ever increasing "employee contributions" to pay for health insurance (about $5000 more from my take home pay this year! Yes, $5,000.00!).

So we are tired. Is it sucking the life out of us? This used to be the UNITED STATES, the country of power, innovation, discovery and the best life on the planet. Who is doing this to us? Any ideas?

On the other hand, how do you insulate yourself from all this negativity? I am trying.....without resorting to "recreational chemicals" or lots of liquid beverage that helps some forget for awhile....which I shouldn't do anyhow with my diabetes.....But I've never been one to stick my head in the sand....

Teachers, we need to deal with this. There are still months and months of teaching to do for our students! Any thoughts?

Just checking in.....update, early September, 2o1o

No teaching tomorrow; its LABOR DAY ! Then, a L O N G stretch until Veterans Day. Today was fairly busy; got online to find some clip-art type artistic images in Native American themes for title page of next unit for 8th Grade US History. Then, shoveled and moved about 700 pounds of dirt from driveway to Mrs. Polski's new garden box in the backyard. Back inside to cool off and continue search for Grade 8 US History graphs, charts, maps and other graphic images to use with my students. You know, the Internet is really a super resource; it wasn't really around last time I taught US History back in the mid-late 1990's-early 2000's-ish years.

Spent too much of the afternoon grading student papers ("Ten Geography and History Facts about our County") Most of them used the data we explored in class using historical maps and other graphic/visual materials to find out things about the area we live. There was a bit of science stuff too, as one of the maps was a simplified geologic map of California and they had to determine what type of rocks made up a mountain range in one part of our county. I was a bit amazed at how little most knew about our local geography and history.....but I guess I should have expected that. I mean really, do parents or some adult in this day and age take their children out on a drive to see the local geographic and historical sights? Or for that matter, do the parents/other adults even know or care about the local geographic and historical things where we live? Anyhow, I digress.

Had Thai with Mrs. Polski tonight. Boys stayed home and had left over whatever they felt like from the family icebox. Then, walked a couple of laps in the air conditioned nearby mall. Then back online to look at state US History tests (why is the TAKS (Texas) US History test so much better than California's? I wonder how the new standards will change the TAKS for US History....but I am in California and there is no way in the 'cosmic-path-to-total-spirituality-and-enlightenment-peace- and-harmony-and-smoke-a-joint-to-lose-your-aches-and-pains- that is California that the History standards will change like Texas' did......).

Next week, we begin our intro to Native American cultures and civilizations. Be talking about the early hunter/gathers, early civilizations, then in small groups to create project about a specific tribe. And, for more points, each group can do a short presentation....these kids need more rhetoric practice.

Week One is almost over.....

Well, its almost the end of week one. I've introduced my students to me and the course, given them a pre-test about part of the first unit, we've assembled interactive notebooks and tomorrow, their first assignments are due ( "Map of their route from home to school," and some Cornell Notes about geography vocabulary).

After I collect their assignments, its time to get into small groups to begin a small geography lab about our county. I have a set of ten questions for them to answer using a variety of historical and other maps and data that include our county. Then, for minimum points, they create a list of at least ten facts about the Geography and History of our county; for "more" points, they make their facts list and create some illustrations to go with their facts (they can find pictures online or draw them), and for the most points, do all the above and write a short report about the Geog. and Hist. of our county.


Over on Coach Brown's blog, he's listed some things "to do" this school year. I really hope he can "not take home work." THAT is a biggie for many of us teachers. As for Polski3, here is what I plan to try this school year (in no particular order):

lecture more

more student writing

use textbook more as a resource for pictures and other graphic resources, using the reading study guide and standards enrichment more for the "reading" assignments.

Do more DBQ type activities

More primary source material (much easier to do for US History than Medieval World)

Try to do more small group activities

Try to bring home less work (this from the guy starting out by collecting two assignments on a friday !)

Hope your Friday is good. Weekends are almost always good. Leave a comment, I'd like to hear from you !

Thanks for reading my blog !

Welcome Back.....rant, rant.....History idea

Well, at least I have a teaching job. After being told that even though the preliminary test data says we did not (again) reach that mystical number that is expected by our Socialist National Government, who in my opinion, are in total violation of our Tenth Amendment by even being involved in Public Education....anyhow, we still "showed growth."

And then, we were told that our personal expenses for health insurance is going up, again. Not the 8-12% that was hinted at before we departed for summer break in June, but about 30-something percent ! This year, I will take home about $4000 less than I did last year.

About Ten more years of this......or retire early and live in near poverty? And the kids haven't even shown up......

But, then again, maybe, just MAYBE, the cycle will spin around to the "flush" times in education and I will get my supposed "benefits" fully paid for and have a much higher take home salary and be able to retire in comfort..... Time will tell.

On the positive side, I am creating a new "extra credit" thing for my students: Post on a classroom bulletin board, an odd picture of someplace in the USA and students get a few points extra credit for properly identifying it. I used to do this eons ago when I taught science, but few students could id most of the weird science close-ups, and other weird stuff I posted.....we'll see how it works for US History.

Back to work, back to school....

With my changed teaching assignment (from world hist. to US History), I've been doing a little reading this summer to restir those US history bits floating around in the ever evolving soup of my brain. I'm currently reading bits of "Spain in the Southwest: A Narrative History of Colonial New Mexico, Mexico, Arizona, Texas and California," by John Kessell. I've recently completed, Kenneth C. Davis' "America' Hidden History," Jeffery Lent's fictional early republic novel "The Whiskey Rebels" (centered around the early National Bank, Hamilton and the Whiskey Rebellion, bits and pieces of David Colbert (editor), "Eyewitness to America," Ray Raphael's "A People's History of the American Revolution," Seymour Morris Jr.'s "American History Revised, Volume 4 of "A History of US: The New Nation," by Joy Hakim, Larry Schweikart and Michael Allan's "A Patriots History of the United States," and various bits of HISTORY Magazine, AMERICAN HERITAGE Magazine, and stuff I find online.

Goal for Today, to type out a "Colonial Spanish North America" timeline. I like timeline activities; I generally make these a tiered activity....minimum points for students to create a simple ten event/date timeline, more possible points for creating/finding illustrations for their events/dates and to earn maximum points, creating the illustrated timeline and researching and writing a short report about any one of the events they chose for their timeline.

Back to School puzzlement: Does your school allow students to have, at school, permanent markers? We don't at my school, due to graffiti problems. However, about every back to school sale I've browsed this summer, there are lots of permanent markers for sale. If students are found to have these markers at my school, they are usually confiscated (our local police have made it be known that the graffitistas of our community are not just tagging crews from the local gangs; they have also caught sk8ers, star athletes and honor students tagging the flat spaces of this community). Guess school policy and community cleanliness cannot get in the way of commerce? The local stores that sell paint already have to keep spray paints under lock and key; are permanent markers next? Anyhow.....

I've also bought, at Staples, about 50 bottles of white glue and 20 150-sheet packages of notebook paper for about 80 cents, (Yes, a penny apiece, plus tax). YES, less than a dollar for all that. Guess those are Staples Company "loss-leaders" to get teachers into their stores to buy more 'no longer being supplied by the schools" stuff for their students.

Time to get back to work. Thank you for reading this post. I welcome your comments and suggestions for teaching 8th graders US History !

New Assignment.....

Thank you, my two loyal friends, for your inquiry as to whats ahead for Polski3. To make a sort of long story short, last spring I was approached by my building administrator and asked if I would consider a change in my teaching assignment for the 2010-11 school year (and beyond?). I'd been teaching Grade 7 World History for....I don't know for sure, but probably 8-10 years. Anyhow, due to parent complaints, my building administrator asked me to consider a change in what I teach. Yes, you read correctly, "parent conplaints."

Last Spring, there was a meeting at my school for the parents of our GATE students. I do not usually attend these meetings, but that is where the complaints were voiced to my building administrator. The nature of these complaints was that several of these GATE parents were not happy/satisified, etc. with their sons/daughters Grade 8 US History classes, that their GATE sons/daughters had not been nearly as interested, challenged or believed by these parents to have learned nearly as much about US History as they did "last year in Mr. Polski3's class."
As a result of this and some other stuff happening at our peputually Federally failing school, my building administrator asked me to consider teaching US History next year. I was asked to please provide an answer by the end of May.

This led to some thinking. And more thinking. And a bit of negotiations. And of course, talking about it with Mrs. Polski3. On the positive side, I was promised, keeping in mind the limited budget, teaching materials needed for, lets just call it my style of teaching history, having GATE students (ok, this could be a negative....depending on how you look at it), and from my own perspective, sometimes it is good to teach something different and not get too comfortable or lackadasical about what you are doing. I've taught 8th US History before, and it was fun to teach. However, that was also before the big mantra about the standards. My building administrator also has noted that I am flexible and work hard to try to get my students to learn the material and that I do stuff like the interactive notebooks to try to help my students.

On the negative side, California 8th Grade History Standards are....BAD. And, teaching 8th Graders can be more...." challenging." And, while many of them complained about the size of the desk they had in 7th grade, now, after a summer of growth, they will be "larger" and in the same crappy desks. Anyhow.....

So anyhow, Polski3 is going to be teaching US History to 8th Graders. I will probably get many of my students from last year, but have also been promised that certain individuals from last year will be in the other 8th grade US History classes, in part because "they need a change."

I've done a little prep work over the summer. Ummm, I don't recall the internet being available when I last taught US History. Geeze, there's lots of stuff online. I especially like that there is SO MUCH more "primary source" stuff as compared to Medieval World History. And, I have already had to kick meself about my time limits to teach certain bits of US History; NO, I cannot spend semester one on Colonial US History. (technically, Colonial US History is part of California's Grade 5 History/Soc. St. Standards, but our students don't get history in Grade 5; and besides, I like teaching the 16 - 17 - 18th Century aspects of US History.....establishment of brewing facilities, fights with Native peoples, slaughtering other Europeans because they are the wrong type of Christians, daily life and all its yuckiness....WHATS not to like????)

So anyhow, into my hot garage to dig out stuff saved from years ago teaching US History, reading early US History (for now) to spark the brain cells, buying a few books...... And the kiddies show up in less than two weeks....

Thanks for reading this. Your ideas and super suggestions for teaching US History or History in general are more than welcome !

Posting, one, two, three....posting

Howdy. Hope your summer is progressing nicely for you. I've been doing some work, as I am changing teaching assignments. I've probably been teaching Medieval World History for about a decade now, and beginning in late August, will be back to US History (and 8th graders). If any of you wish more about how and why this change is happening, please ask.

Stay cool.

A visit to....another world, another planet, apparently, another universe....

California is DOOMED. This is my conclusion after a brief lobbying visit to our pawned away, once Golden State's capital city to meet with a few of our elected representatives at the state capitol.

In short, I met with two actual state legislators and two state legislature minions. My assembly district's representative, Manuel Perez, who is in his first two-year term and therefore must often recite the Democratic Party mantra regarding needing more funding and the evil Republicans who will not bend to the Donkey' desires. Oh, Assemblyman Perez was cordial enough and his aid who was there actually asked a couple of good questions to our group. When Assemblyman Perez asked us just how we thought state spending priorities should be, I told him that I believed they should start with the State Constitutionally mandated items and any money left over be spent on legislated things. I don't recall his exact words, but they indicated the probable impossibility of doing such things and then ranted about "getting the Republicans in this building to work with us."

The second real assemblyman I met with was one who is in the spotlight right now, at least in terms of education. Not having a scheduled appointment with him, myself and one other member of our local delegation (who is actually our local teachers association president, who told me, "I want to go with you to learn how to do this stuff (meaning lobbying)." [ disclaimer: Polski3's experience in lobbying/talking to elected officials has been limited as I live in a political and geographic backwater of our nation that politicians are not interested in.....we tend to get "dumped" into legislative districts with greater population. For example, our State Senate district is, population-wise, in the coastal county to the west; that Senator gets "stuck" with us out here in the desert. Our State Assembly area includes "us" and a more heavily populated area in a county north of us. Yes, politically, we are unwanted and an embarrassment due to our high illiteracy and unemployment statistics].....Oh, anyhow, I timed our meeting attempt for about 20 minutes after a scheduled meeting. We walked into the office of Assemblyman Tom Torlakson, Democrat. Torlakson is a member of the Assembly Education committee and is running for California State Superintendent of Public Education. He has been endorsed by both teacher unions (CFT and CTA) and the classified employees union (CSEA). I found out that he'd been a teacher and coached track and field for 25 years. He agreed to meet with us for a few minutes as he was on his way to another meeting. I thought it was nice of him to spend a couple of minutes with us and listen to our brief pitch about changing the way California funds Public Education. I also gave him a short letter asking him in his position on the Assembly Education Committee and perhaps as State Superintendent of Public Education, to consider revamping the State Social Studies standards (to reduce what we are expected to teach and make it more revelent to our students; these are, survey courses and the standards ask for the teaching of too many "non" power standards), to get the folks in power to do so to integrate the History/Social Studies and Language Arts materials so that something like when students are in grade 8, they could read things in language arts related to US History, not stuff (and not that its not of value), like Diary of Ann Frank (Grade 10 H/SS standards) or "Riki Ticki Tavi" (which if stretched, might somehow fit in with grade 6 H/SS standards), and to include a real geography class somewhere (like maybe where it used to be, in Grade 9). Assemblyman Torlakson took my note and thanked me for it, saying he'd read it. ( I haven't hear anything from him yet. ) Meeting with him, as brief and "unplanned" as it was, was the lobbying highlight of the day.

We also met with minions of two other legislators, one of whom is being termed out and the other who wants that Senate seat. IMO, the meeting with the minion of the state Senator "being termed out" was a waste of time. I'd talked to her once before (State Senator Denise Ducheny-Moreno) about an educational issue and she gave me the distinct impression that she didn't want to her it or talk to me. She also used some rather course language at this meeting, which I thought to be unprofessional, especially since my two young boys were there (it was a chance encounter at my favorite coffee/book shop, sadly, now closed). The meeting with the minion of Assemblywoman Mary Salas (who wants Ducheny's Senate seat) went well enough, the young man in her office was polite, took alot of notes and expressed to us several times that Assemblywoman Salas was interested in what we had to say. However, I wouldn't vote for either her or her Democratic opponent due to the incredible, never-before-seen amount of pure crap they are flinging at each other and is cluttering up my mailbox. Seriously, just these two have destroyed a whole forest with all the crap mailings they are sending out. IMO, its pathetic.

Oh, BTW, our delegation seemed to be the buzz of this lobbying effort. The sponsoring organization was the California School Boards Association. The president of our district school board (husband of a now retired teacher), thought it would be more "powerful" in talking to the legislators if there was a diverse group, not just school board members. So, I got to go, in the part of a teacher and parent, there was a parent, our district superintendent, the board president and the current president of our local teachers association. This was such an unusual thing that the CSBA PR lady did a short write up about us. (I was not quoted). You can probably find it on the CSBA website. The legislators / or minions noted the diversity of our group also.

But, overall, I don't find much good to say. Too much fighting between Democrats and Republicans. Anyone who strays from the "party" line will be seriously delt with. Polski3 says Don't look for changes in how schools are funded, expect future cuts to Public education, higher taxes and continued dysfunction from those pathetic self-serving creatures in the State House.

Oh, two more things; there was a very interesting display about California and the Civil War featuring a number of regimental flags from Civil War era California regiments and some artifacts, including one display case of artifacts from the Battle of Gettysburg. Secondly, they is, outside the Governors office, guarded by a well dressed member of the California Highway Patrol (our "state" troopers/police), a big bronze grizzly bear statue similar to those you might find at zoos for the kids to climb on and beaming parents take a photo of their kids on the statue. Anyhow, the statue was cool. The Governator was not in, so no chance to bend his ear.

Thanks for reading this. Hope your summer is a Grand one !

Still here....Misc. reports from a not quite so "terra del firm"

Yes, I am still here. THANK YOU for checking in here and reading my blathering. We are still shaking a bit here.....aftershocks they call them. We, at least I am, getting used to them. Mrs. Polski3 doesn't not like these smaller quakes at all. There have been lots of Richter scale level 4 quakes, and a few in the low 5's. Nothing bigger, thank you very much.

Local service clubs raised some money by having a bar-b-que last weekend. I helped out, putting in about 8 hours. Gads, I've never seen so much meat and beans. Unfortunately for the fund raising effort, there was lots left over. But that was beneficial for all the local social service agencies who could use it to help their people. Our local service clubs (mainly the Kiwanis, I think), got the meat, beans, salad, rolls, and cans of salsa donated, so all the funds raised can go to help those with damages from the big Easter Sunday Quake. These funds are necessary because as we found out, FEMA will not help out individual families who lost their home or whose home (mostly mobile homes) were damaged. And of course, California cannot even pay its usual bills, much less fork out money to help the poorest of the poor in the most illiterate and most unemployed folks county in the USA.

As for school, yeah, the year is winding down. As usual, we teachers are required to turn in grades two weeks prior to the end of our school year. I must be learning; I did not bash my head on that brick wall this year; not once have I brought up to my principal why the seventh grade teachers cannot turn in grades when we check out for the summer. No, because of the computerized system in another county, we cannot split our grade reporting. I didn't even ask if he'd asked if it was possible to do that.....my head feels better this year.

Going to our tainted State Capital this weekend for a parley with state lawmakers. I am a "teacher" representative who is supposed to tell any lawmaker or their minions who show up, about how the decline in funding is hurting our schools; providing an experienced teachers perspective about testing, funding cuts, etc. This is a California School Boards Association function; up to Sac. Sunday morning, back home Monday night. No time to visit several nice, interesting people I know in Sac. The district is paying for it and I am supposed to have my own hotel room. Damn, too bad Mrs Polski3 can't come along.

And, and I admit I was surprised by this, Monday will be the only day I have missed this school year! Been a fairly healthy year. Most years, I burn a personal day to journey over to San Diego to see a Padres day game. However, this season, IMO, they screwed up their schedule by having day games start at 3:35 (instead of 1:05 as they have done for the past several decades). To me, driving about two hours to get there, watch the game, have some dinner and drive about two hours to get home and to bed was doable with a 1:05 start. Not doable with a 3:35 start. Anyhow, no game this "spring." I might get a free ticket for being a blood donor; San Diego Blood Bank has a day in Sept. against the Cinn. Reds honoring their donors who have bled alot.....I just went over 13 gallons. Is this too much talk about community service? Well anyhow, I hope my sons see me do these things and learn that it is good to help people and your community. OK....blathering done for now.

Until next time, Thanks for reading this and I hope you can leave a comment or two.

Shaking on Easter Sunday.....! 7.2 on the Richter Scale is pretty wild !

Well, I now know what a 7.2 earthquake feels like! That was some ride. I was sitting at my dining room table working on a stamp collection a guy at church didn't want any more and so he gave it to me when a rumbling sound that was increasing in volume came from behind me (which would be south). Bam. Everything started shaking. Big jolt, then wave after wave. Couldn't surf those waves though. Loudest quake I've ever heard. My wife had been in kitchen, she followed our youngest under the dining room table (duck and cover....we do that here in California schools). Older son was in his room, reading. I got up to be sure TV was turned off, hollered at oldest son if he was ok. Lots of noise from stuff breaking in the kitchen and falling out of the pantries adjacent the dining room. Then it stopped. Buzzing from computer power backup device..... waded into the study to turn computer off and the computer power backup device. Buzzing ended with push of a button.

We are fine, house ok, there are a couple of cracks in the stucco walls. (Here in southern California, we don't build from brick.....cement slab, wooden or steel frame, stucco exterior walls, plasterboard (drywall) interior walls). Our study is a mess with books, games, teaching stuff, paper for computer and stamp collection stuff that was jolted off shelves and desk. Kitchen was a big mess with some broken dishes, a couple broken bottles of wine and brandy (which nobody here drinks anyway), a few random spices that tumbled from spice cabinet and broke....a little parsley with brandy, anyone? Not enough dishes broken to warrant my buying wife new dishes... And our TV fell out of the entertainment center and seems to be broken. I did plan to watch BosSox beat NYY Sunday night,(Baseball is starting YEAH !) then watch Sharpe dally about in India and then watch baseball most of the day Monday. Oh well; the Padres will be on the radio. Power was out (for this area of town) about six hours. Water service never interrupted, but there are some issues with the city water storage tanks. We do have a number of bottles of water on hand if ever need be.

Local Emergency Broadcast System did not work. The one English language radio station here was off the air. Congressional reps will hear about this from me. A neighbor did pick up some news from a San Diego radio station, but they really had no local details.

Easter dinner was just a bit of Costco ham that was in the oven when the shaking started. We ate some, then cut up the bulk of it and distributed it to the neighbors. Next door neighbor bemoaning loss of three bottles of "GOOD" tequila. Most local businesses closed Monday; I can imagine what Costco, WalMart, Lowes, etc. look like. But, we are all safe and almost ignoring the aftershocks.


I heard our classrooms were a mess. I'll find out next Monday. I don't need to go in during Spring Break unless principal or district official calls and needs me to do something in my classroom. Probably have my students start Monday with writing a personal story of their experiences in the earthquake.

Aftershocks were bugging us somewhat Sunday and Monday.....several in the 5.0+ range. We were awaken twice Sunday night by good shakes aftershocks.

So, any natural disasters for you the past week? If so, please share them with us !

Oh, I don't know about the commenting here at blogspot, so, if you'd like to leave a comment, please email it to me at this email address: DKE1959 at sbgglobal dot net

I will post comments to this story. Will do the same over at new Polski3 place at wordpress.

Moving.

Polski3 is moving. I will now be over at Polski3.wordpress.com I hope you continue to check my new site once in awhile for educational stuff; ideas, comments, rants and raves, etc. This blog will not be killed, I don't want to lose some of what is here, and from the whatever that tells you about who has been to your blog, I have seen a number of people seeing some of my educational strategies stuff.

I will be transferring some of this stuff over to my new blog at wordpress.

Part of the reason to move, was that there seems to be a problem with this site; comments do not appear. That is, unless absolutely no one had anything to say about my previous post. And, sometimes, change is good. I hope to see you visit Polski3.wordpress.com !

Unexpectedly, THEY done Good !

Tomorrow, I need to track down a couple of seventh graders. Why? Here's why.

Today, as I exited our decrepit "teacher's lounge," I pulled my sunglasses out of my shirt pocket. I then went a very short distance to my classroom, where, a few minutes prior to the next class beginning, I call my lovely wife. Just as I was beginning to talk to the beautiful Mrs. Polski3, my classroom door opened and two seventh grade boys came in. I looked at them quizzically. They approached me and handed me a twenty dollar bill and a five dollar bill. "You dropped these outside Mr. Polski3," they told me. I said, "Just a minute honey," to Mrs Polski3, then in a bit of shock, said to them, "THANK YOU boys!". They quietly departed.

At the least, I should write out a couple of "Front of the Lunch Line" passes for them. From what I have seen at my fairly high poverty school, these boys acted very differently than most of their peers would have done. I'll try to find them tomorrow, and quietly, offer them a small reward for what they did. Most students at my school would most likely not have done what they did, in returning the money. Bravo for them !

There IS good in most of them!

Thanks for reading this post. Do you have some "caught being Good!" stories you could share? Have a great day !

Some comments on my students using Interactive Notebooks

Just a few things I've learned about using Interactive Notebooks with my seventh graders:


1. If you collect and grade papers/student work that will be included in the S.I.N. (Student Interactive Notebook), either allow students time (and if necessary, use of the classroom glue supply) to add the work to their SIN at the time you return the papers, OR, hold onto several assignments/activities you've graded, then dedicate part of the class period you return the assignments/activities for students to add them to their interactive notebook. IF you return assignments/activities and do not allow time for students to add this work to their SIN, too many will lose it and it will never get into their interactive notebook.


2. Do NOT assume Seventh Graders understand the concept of even/odd. I encourage you to cruise the classroom when students are numbered pages in their SIN at the start of a unit. In their SIN, odd numbered pages are on the left side [work completed outside of class] of their notebook and even numbers [work done in class]are on the right side of their notebooks. I have found many do not pay attention to the repeated instructions, do not pay attention to the samples drawn on the board or, being seventh graders, their mushy minds are who-knows-where. So, cruise the classroom and make sure they are numbering correctly. OH, and USE A PENCIL to write the numbers!


3. Sometimes notes or assignments need more space than you thought. Certain assignments all being on a certain page often, lets just say, leads to a messier SIN. Some of my seventh graders are "needing" three pages in their SIN to complete what I think are two pages for notes, questions, etc. This is due largely to the fact that some of them are still printing in big letters like third graders. I
suggest you don't have a cow about this; on the plus side, they did the work, even if in the near future, their SIN will not have the assignments on the pages you ask for them to be on. One strategy for dealing with "page over-runs" is to simply add a page or a partial page to their SIN. This can work, but help them with it so their pages don't end up stuck together.


4. Having some students with the nice 8.5 x 11 spiral notebooks and too many with the cheaper 8 x 10.5 spiral notebooks is a pain and hassle when configuring some of the assignments/activities that will be included in their SIN. However, on a positive note, this has helped me par down to the absolute necessary questions related to our subject matter/topic. ( I tend to try to teach too much of "past" standards material or too much of our standards material.....the problem with liking history and being frustrated that they cannot really grasp the current standards material because they never had a chance to learn the "past" standards material because Social Studies is not taught in our district's sixth grade classrooms.....but that's another something to blog about in the future)


5. Letting students use their SIN on tests and quizzes does not improve their test/quiz scores. Students who have learned the material do well and hardly look at their SIN; Students who did not learn the material and even using their SIN, well, they didn't do the work so there is not much to help them on the test/quiz. However, the SIN is a great tool in Parent-Student-Teacher conferences. Parent is usually not real happy to hear his/her spawn failed a test/quiz that was "open book," so to speak.


and Lastly, at number 6, I have sadly learned that even though more students have more of their work (in their SIN), this does not mean that they study and review it as part of their homework, that they correct errors on their work, or that they complete work that they failed to finish when it was being done in class or as homework.


Anyhow, using a Student Interactive Notebook can be a good tool for helping students be organized and have most of their work in one place. Of course, there are those who can't find their SIN, who lost their SIN, whose SIN in someplace in a relatives car in Mexico.......


Are you using Interactive Notebooks? I would really like to hear your comments about them. THANKS FOR READING MY BLOG !

Pay Cuts? Viva L'Revolution !

I really hope this is not a trend that will become reality. In this mornings San Diego Union-Tribune, there was an article informing us that the San Diego Unified School District (2nd largest in California, following the mess that is LA Unified), may propose a district-wide pay cut of up to 8%.

According to the article, SDUSD and the teachers Association/union have been working under a contract that is several years past its expiration date. One of the board members quoted in the story says basically that in light of the financial difficulties the state is facing, there is just not enough money to go around and instead of raising class sizes, cutting course offerings, closing schools and firing more teachers, classified personnel etc., perhaps a big cut in pay is needed. He did say that perhaps the pay cut would be paid back when financial times improve.

I'd bet you are in the same boat as the Polski3 family; we have cut back on a number of things because my salary has been reduced via inflation, no cola increases, big increases in the cost of health insurance (which will go up a whole lot more if our idiot Congress passes that horrid health care bill) and the cost of having two teens in the household. I can live on less money that I currently EARN, but I really don't want to do that or subject my family to further degradations in our style of living ( yep son #1, you might get to drive Dad's 1996 Camry in a couple of years, if it is still running!)


Polski3 thinks California needs a REVOLUTION. A revolution that tosses out every single member of the California State Legislature and every single "Board" that infests this state, and take the State Constitution back to, say, 1930, then put things back in it based on common sense and what is best for the people of California. Demand that our children, public safety and health are more important than convicted criminals. Maybe California could negotiate with the State of Baja California del Norte to build a new prison to house convicted California criminals.....I bet Baja could do it for about $5,000 each/annually, instead of the $50,000 or so California currently spends. And when criminal illegal immigrants are "released", bus them to the home address of your local congressmen and senators. Ok, Polski3 is getting a bit out of it here..... anyhow Something FOR THE PEOPLE.


I encourage you and everyone you know who can to "Vote NO" for any incumbent, Vote NO on every proposition asking for more money. Get in the face of any and every State politician (and Federal ones too!) that visit your town. Let them know you are sick and tired of the way things are and THEY are largely responsible for it ! Demand answers to your questions, don't accept their usual political gobbledygook. You can find out where they will be by visiting their websites (paid for by YOUR money) and/or by calling their offices (also paid for with YOUR money). Don't threaten them, be polite and courteous and promise them you will actively campaign to toss them and their brethren out of office. If you can, write them. Don't e-mail, writing is more effective. Maybe you will actually receive a reply. If they don't satisfactorily answer you, write again (and again if need be).


Your comments are welcome. I hope your second semester of school is going well and that you still have a teaching job next year (if you want one). Be in fine health and spirits.

Its now 2010.....!

Happy New Year to you all ! I hope 2010 is a new year of fine health, happiness, Love, prosperity and smarter, superbly behaved, higher-test-scoring students for you all !

Have a good first week back at school !