Polski3's View from Here

Hello

2012-01-31T21:28:00.001-08:00

Hello, yes, its been awhile. Been really busy....family, teaching, survival.....Not too much to really write about, other than it has been a different teaching year for many teachers in my school district....especially with much greater discipline issues to deal with.

In all my years of teaching, never, never, had a student deliberately set fire to a building at my school (a metal storage container housing not-yet used workbooks and other classroom materials). Higher class sizes (I am maxed out at 35 in three of my five core classes; have five or six open seats in the other two)....and it is a much greater challenge to get this batch of students to get started, continue to work and turn in their assignments. Administration questions teachers giving homework assignments that many students will not do (and thus lower their grade in the class).

Another teacher has voice the opinion that our school and district has become more like an "inner city school/district" and all the problems that go with such places.

But, I am still plugging along....doing the best I can in our circumstances...I won't get into the bits about MORE cuts to education heading for California schools because our elected officials cannot, will not, refuse to accept the fact that El Estado de California (del Norte) has NO MONEY, that they have spent way more than they have and that there are solutions to the problem but they will not do what several committees, think tanks, etc. have suggested needs doing to get this state back on the right track.....

SO, how if your school year going?

NEA doesn't get it....or is it us teachers?

2011-07-04T20:56:00.000-07:00

Well here it is, the Fourth of July. Independence Day for USA. I hope you all had a good 4th of July holiday.

NEA, the National Education Association, is holding their annual convention in Chicago. I read online from a couple of bloggers who are attending, that the NEA is doing two things that I really do not agree with; endorsing the re-election of President Barack Obama and raising our dues $10.00 annually for the next five years.

In my opinion, President Obama does not deserve a second term of office as President of the United States. Just sticking with my views regarding education and the Presidency, he has not done much for teachers or the students of this nation. Yes, he did get Congress to authorize bail out money to help save some teaching jobs during the 2010-11 school year (adding to the already staggering US debt!). Has he done anything regarding NCLB? Not that I'm aware of. When Senator Obama began his term as President, students were only being tested in English and Math. In far too many of our nations elementary schools, especially those with a high percentage of minority and low income students, English and Math are all those students are drilled in. Not taught, drilled, so they can hopefully do better on the TEST and demonstrate they improved when their scores are compared with the CLASS PRIOR to theirs. If so, yeah for the school, its teachers and students. If not, you teachers are not doing your job.

NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND. How about the hundreds of thousands of our children who are being left behind in being given the opportunity to learn history, geography, science, art, music, and physical education? Far too many students do not get the amount of instruction in those subject areas that the state department of education says they should get. But it doesn't matter, because until they reach junior high school (at least here in the Great Democrat People's Republica de California), students are never tested in history, geography, science, art, music and p.e. Does this mean Polski3 says students should be annually tested in all these subjects? Maybe. Why not? Doesn't most of the literate world test their students to determine if they will be moving on to the next educational level or sent to work in the rice paddy? Anyhow, I am against NEA endorsing President Obama for a second term. Oh, so who should the NEA endorse? How about NOBODY. How about the NEA declare that they are eager to meet and work with whomever is the next President of the United States to help their members have better pay, working conditions and benefits. Because if teachers are better paid, have better working conditions (such as not having to spend time fixing classroom desks) and benefits, they will be healthier and it will be better for the students. A healthy, happy teacher is the best person for a classroom.

As for raising my dues $10.00 annually, that is a dollar a month from my paycheck. Doesn't sound like much, but I do not agree with what NEA wants to do with my ten dollars....they want to use it for political purposes. To give to candidates and "political" organizations that do not necessarily represent my values, beliefs or politics. Here on the 4th of July, we celebrate the Declaration of Independence; the British colonists of America telling King George III that we do no longer wish to be part of his empire, no longer wish to be ruled by him or suffering from a lack of political power. We fought his soldiers to gain our independence. Two of my ancestors were part of the "patriot/rebel" forces (Peter Looney; North Carolina militia in what is now Tennessee, Samuel Gray left his farm and family to join two of his brothers and a bunch of rebel men now called the "Over Mountain Men," to go fight King George's men at a place called Kings Mountain.).

CTA (Calif. Teachers Assoc.) has a form that a member can fill out annually that diverts the portion of our dues from political action to the general fund. I plan to find out if NEA has a similar opportunity for teacher members to tell NEA that NO, I don't want you to use any of my dues money for political actions. It would be nice if we could get a rebate on that portion of our dues, but they won't do that.

I've read a number of times that the teachers unions do not really represent the views, beliefs or values of their teacher members. If you are still reading this missive, let me ask you these questions: Did you vote for your representative to the annual NEA convention? Did you express your views to your representative? If your answer is no, WHY NOT? It is apathy such as this that gives the "leadership" of CTA, NEA and other teachers unions the power that they want. YOU MUST BE INVOLVED! Don't sit back in silence! This nation would never have become the United States of America if too many of our ancestors just sat back and said, "oh well, I'll just pay King George more in taxes....or its ok to have a couple of soldiers living in my house....." GET INVOLVED. LET YOUR VOICE BE HEARD!

If NEA does indeed have a dues redirect from political action, I will post that information here in this blog.

Thanks for reading my thoughts, opinions and feelings. Have a safe summer!

End of year activities.....

2011-05-17T20:04:00.000-07:00

If your school is like mine, grades are due about two weeks prior to the actual end of the school year. Gotta grant time for parents, students (and administrators) to whine, beg, cajole, threaten, grovel and perform other acts of embarrassment to try to get teachers to change a few grades so that (1) student F can go through the promotion ceremony/graduate or (2) YOUR class is the only one in which student F was GIVEN a failing grade, so therefore, YOU need to fix YOUR deficiencies and CHANGE student F's final grade in YOUR CLASS to a passing grade..... Of course it doesn't matter that student F was absent too often, failed to make up any missing work, failed to turn in homework and when student F did turn in classwork, it was crap.....anyhow, What to do with the kiddies after grades have been turned in?????

Well, lots of video stuff that could be seen.....I even have some old filmstrips that I could show just so they can truly say that they experiences such antiquated technology in Polski3's class.....if my old f/s projector still works. I have been told by our tech lady that when "that bulb dies, you get no replacement!"

However, what I do plan to do, may include some of the following:

Give my students a DBQ experience. I will be teaching a bit about immigration and using a DBQ activity for some of it. Students should get an idea about why people came here, who came here and when, what they contributed to US culture and economy and how immigration is still a current, important topic for today. I'll have my students create a 6+6 (six illustrations with captions about the illustration) to help show me their learning about immigration.

Then, to compliment the Immigration DBQ activity, we'll do a "Choosing Your Way through History" story. From my copy of Walch Publishing Company's, "Choosing Your Way Through America's Past, Book 3: Adventures from 1850-1900," there is a story entitled, "Tenement Folk," you are a young German immigrant preparing to leave your crowded tenement in New York in 1889....the first page tells about life in urban tenements in the later years of the 19th century, then students must decide on what to do....in this story, do you (the student) go to Pittsburgh or Chicago? I have students write down their choices, circle their choice, then explain why they made THAT decision. Then they turn to the indicated second page of their story, read it and have another decision to make. However, before they decide, they write a short summary about what happened to them because of their decision. [ note: I love this series of historical stories; they have them for all time periods of history....check on Amazon or e-bay to find used copies ---and NO, I am not the author or receiver of anything financial....they are just a great tool to help make learning history more fun and interesting. There may be some free sample stories on the publishers website] Anyhow, they continue on through their story until it ends....endings for these stories might be good or...like in the story about the Black Death, not so good. But they love it. Each story also has some activities at the end that students can do, for example, students could write a letter home telling about their experinces as a recent immigrant to the United States, or draw a diagram of a typical 12x12 tenement apartment housing up to 20 people....showing where everyone can sleep....Then, students create a 6+6 about their story.

I will also throw in a few tips on dealing with high school.

Oh, and I'll also handout a copy of the US Constitution that I got from my local Congressman for my students. I thought it might be nice if each of them left school with their own copy of the US Constitution. (My local Congressman was happy to oblige; He's a former Social Studies teacher.)

That should get us through the next couple of weeks of this school season.

What do you do with your students the last couple of weeks? Please share with us!

Creating Lasting Memories.....

2011-05-11T16:31:00.000-07:00

Today, as per our School Board memo, is our districts "TEACHER APPRECIATION DAY." It was celebrated at our schools by our district administrators giving 31 teachers their "final notice," ".....in accordance with Education Code Sections 44949 and 44955, you are hereby notified that you will be laid off as a certificated employee of this district for the ensuring 2011-2012 school year."

Mrs Polski3 was one such recipient of this Teacher Appreciation Day notification.

You'd think these people would have a bit more empathy or a bit of common sense or humanity, or....?

But they don't. Why do such people end up as district administrators?

State Testing

2011-04-28T20:17:00.000-07:00

It begins for us next week. Pray for us.

Slice and Dice.....California Slashers at work..... District Office Rippers

2011-04-11T19:56:00.000-07:00

Read a couple of other teacher blogs....depressing. Sounds like the same story for teachers all throughout what is supposed to be the greatest nation on earth, supposedly blessed by God..... teachers being forced to take furlough days, paying more, much more from their take home pay for health insurance expenses, higher class sizes, fewer administrators to handle discipline, less materials to teach with, no salary raises in many years......California, Nevada, Illinois, Georgia....same story.

As for the Polski3 family, my job is safe. However, Mrs Polski had her math position "eliminated" and she has been pink-slipped. Oh, and she was notified that she is one of our county's "Outstanding Math teachers" and getting an award in the near future. But come June, she's an unemployed teacher. California will have many, many unemployed teachers in June. And unlike in some recent years, no last minute rehiring of many of them because the state got some money from the Chinese or Arabs...oops, I mean the Feds.

At my school, six of our seven Language Arts teachers were pink-slipped. Those who were pink-slipped were hired since 2005. They may be replaced by "multiple subject" teachers who have an ELA (English-Language Arts) endorsement on their credential. This could foul us up because we could have a slew of "new" teachers who haven't taught that curriculum and who are now teaching junior high only because it was "THAT" or unemployment. It could also foul us up with the Feds / NCLB folks because having such an endorsement on one's credential does not mean that teacher is a "highly qualified teacher" under the rules of NCLB. I know.....my California credential also says I can teach science, but I am not "highly qualified" under NCLB unless I get a piece of paper from a university that says "Bachelor of Science degree" or take some tests.....Is there a university that grants a BS in "General Science?" Really bleek times for our Language Arts department.....

We are supposed to lose our assistant principals too.....Our district wants lots from us teachers; furlough days, no state lottery money in our paychecks, changes in contract language about evaluation and non-voluntary transfers and class size increases. Their offer? Nothing. They offer nothing in exchange. Oh, wait, I heard that they have discussed dropping all district contributions towards teacher health insurance. Administration keeps their district paid cell phones, i-pads, gasoline allowance, fully paid health insurance and unlimited supplies. I got to order four cases of photocopy paper for next year. That's it. My stash from previous "flusher" times is dwindling.....Guess I will have to teach without making any copies.

Meanwhile, our elected idiots in Sacramento cannot get over their partisan politics to do what they need to do for this state. Convicted criminals are more important than the children. Ack, I won't go there.....

So, how is life where you are? Thanks for reading this depressing blog posting. Maybe I can get a summer job at Costco or Walmart?

I heard.....and I wonder....

2011-03-22T19:32:00.000-07:00

According to our school custodians, many of our "young men" have problems hitting their "target" in the restroom. It is said that the product they leave behind is smellier, more pungent than it should be, because our "young men" are not drinking enough water. What do you think?

I wonder if math scores would improve if our math teachers had traditional single desks for their students instead of the double desks that they must use? Why might math scores improve? Could it be that there is less messing around and more work (learning) accomplished without the distraction of another student in such close proximity? I have also heard rumor that discipline is an issue in most of our math classes. What are your thoughts?

Professional Growth?

2011-03-10T19:07:00.001-08:00

Warning - This post will be a bit rambling.

I teach junior high school History. The subject I teach probably won't change, as I am at the tail end of my teaching career. Recently, I thought of something a bit disturbing while browsing at a bookstore with a couple of history books in my hands, "Do I need these for my teaching?"

This was a disturbing question for me. I have what I consider a nice little library of mostly history titles, mostly non-fiction. I looked at the titles, "To Kingdom Come," by Robert J. Mrazek (WWII first person accounts of a 1943 B-17 raid on Stuttgart) and Col. Robert W. Black's "Ranger Dawn: American Ranger from the Colonial Era to the Mexican War." Both are in my range of interests, one within the parameters of my current teaching assignment. But I doubt I will use or need the material for the survey history course level I teach. So why buy them?

We history teachers have been told to "stick to the standards." Yech. The California Standards for 8th grade US History are, lets just say, lacking in so many ways. We are pretty much relegated to teaching relevant vocabulary, a few names and dates, how to find such things in a very abbreviated expository text (the reading study guide that came with our big, heavy State-adopted textbook)... we're supposed to do the number the paragraphs, circle vocabulary and names followed by underlining the definition or why person Y is important....etc..etc... As long as it is standards based. NOT too interesting or exciting for most students.

So, with such a formula, is there a need to attend conferences to get new ideas? Surf the web to search out new teaching ideas? Spend one's dwindling money to buy stuff like "Dinah Zikes Big Book of U.S. History," (she is a huge proponent of "foldables")? Continue to search for ideas to make history more relevant, interesting and exciting for my students? Is there time for that, in the time allotted for class?

I have always been one to try to cram as much "interesting" stuff into my lessons as I can....I think the "little" stuff, small bits of this and that are what can help bring history alive and interesting for students with very limited exposure to this discipline. But to continue to search and spend money to add stuff to one's "toolbox" when the fact is, I probably won't be teaching this stuff ten years from now. And have been tasked with "Get them ready for the State Social Studies test" and don't worry about all the other stuff.....and use the materials we (the district) bought....

Those two books? I bought them. Used my 25% off discount for teachers (if the material is subject related to what you teach). I read for my own learning too, and my own enjoyment. Sharing it with the students is good, when you can.

But, should I change? Stop searching and just use what I have accumulated over the past 27 years? There are other things to use my time and money for.....

Anyhow, what do you think? What do you do?

Normal? Or not?

2011-02-01T20:08:00.000-08:00

These seems to be a lack of energy among many of the teachers I know, myself included. Many say they are tired. I wonder how many of us are depressed? On the bright side, I have a job, a fairly secure job. But, out here in California, the Broke State, what is going to happen next? I have already taken a big hit in my paycheck this year due to huge increase in health insurance (about $5000), and of course, the price of groceries, gas, my basic cable tv service, etc are going up, up, up.... Pressure at school because of being in like, year seven or so of being a "failing" school.

This year, many teachers at my school are being .....hammered (?), warned (?), don't know the exact adjective for it, about "how many F's YOU are GIVING." Is it our school, or district, or county (which is #1 in the USA for unemployment), that far too many of our students won't even attempt to do anything related to school outside of the school? Vocabulary, math problems, read their AR books, review, assemble packets.....for many, they do nothing academic. Its not like they are going to work after school.....

And, I've pretty much dropped all "union" stuff....no more building rep, going to any meetings, etc. Is this depressing? Am I beginning to be a burned out teacher? Anyone else out there frustrated with the way things are at their school? You know you are busting your butt trying to teach these kids in a variety of ways and trying to make it varied and interesting, but you get next to nothing from too many of them?

I don't think I am burning out, or burned out. I don't know that teachers who are burned out keep working to get new ideas and try new things to get their students to learn the state-dictated, standards based material we are being asked to teach.

Maybe someday, the powers that be who make the decisions in education will realize that until the students do their job, the parents make sure their kids are keeping up and learning in school, that nothing they try will really work.

I know the kid whose i-pod (at least I was told it was an i-pod) I confiscated this morning had better enjoy such toys now; if the rest of his life is like the effort he makes in my class (and other classes), he won't be affording any toys like that. But, on the bright side, one of his parents has to show up at the school to get that electronic toy back. Maybe, just maybe, they'll find out something about his grades. Heaven knows they don't check his planner or respond to any tele-parent messages.

Ok. Thanks for reading this post...rant? Am I depressed? Or just frustrated? Alone in it? Or part of a big group of teachers? I hope you are doing great !

Comment if you feel like it.

Its a New Year.... time to change....

2011-01-13T21:05:00.001-08:00

Hello, yes, its been awhile. Lots to do, how about you? Polski has been busy.....family, work....you know the story. And I just haven't felt like blogging. There is enough negative crap going on without clicking into a teacher blog and seeing negative stuff, rants about all the problems teachers are experiencing, budgets being cut, layoffs, etc. I tend to be good at complaining; Mrs. Polski, knowing her husband and many members of his family, has come to believe it is inherent with the Polski family, or a least a popular hobby with us.

Anyhow....its now 2o11. One thing I am trying to focus on....no, its not a "new years resolution"....I gave up on those long ago, I am trying to focus on being more positive, less cynical, negative, gloomy, etc. I am not all that sure exactly how to do this, but trying to think about a situation for a few seconds prior to something exiting my mouth is helping. Trying to avoid the eternal pessimists at work and generally trying to be less stressed about stuff I really have no control over.....

I am even working on a teachers version of the famous "serenity prayer." I'll maybe post it if it gets to a form that seems appropriate.

Thanks for taking the time to read this. Comments are welcomed!

No Mas

2010-11-18T19:15:00.001-08:00

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

2010-11-10T20:58:00.000-08:00

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) ?

2010-10-21T21:31:00.000-07:00

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 ?

2010-10-08T21:27:00.000-07:00

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.....!

2010-10-06T20:22:00.001-07:00

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

2010-10-04T20:30:00.000-07:00

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 ?

2010-09-24T22:23:00.000-07:00

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

2010-09-05T21:37:00.000-07:00

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.....

2010-08-26T20:40:00.000-07:00

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

2010-08-19T18:47:00.000-07:00

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....

2010-08-09T09:53:00.000-07:00

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.....

2010-08-03T21:35:00.000-07:00

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

2010-07-13T22:16:00.000-07:00

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....

2010-06-02T19:59:00.000-07:00

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"

2010-05-21T21:27:00.000-07:00

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 !

2010-04-06T20:05:00.000-07:00

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.

2010-03-02T20:20:00.000-08:00

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 !

2010-02-24T18:36:00.000-08:00

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

2010-02-16T20:22:00.000-08:00

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 !

2010-01-23T22:03:00.000-08:00

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.....!

2010-01-02T14:28:00.000-08:00

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 !

Almost a "new year," will you be ready to go ?

2009-12-16T17:13:00.000-08:00

One and a half more kid days until they amble away until "next year." Do you have your lesson plans all ready to go for when you and "them" get back to school "next year?" I do. My first week of January lesson plans are all ready to go, no prep to do when Jan. 4 rolls around and my students and I are sitting there staring at each other.

Hope your preparations for the holiday season are going well ! Remember, take time for YOU. Just YOU !

Thanks for reading this blog ! Your comments are welcome !

Student activity: Going over work....remember THIS?

2009-11-29T19:27:00.000-08:00

Going over work in a class after a break can be a chore. Prior to our Thanksgiving Week off, we had begun our Islam unit. I showed them a video lecture and students were to circle answers on their worksheet ( I find such a "guided" activity works best for seventh graders who are not used to, cannot or will not taking notes from lecture or video activities, etc. The way this works is, the worksheet is passed out prior to viewing the video and students are to quietly read over the questions so they have an idea of what to listen for. [ Where do these video worksheets come from? These worksheets are created by me, the teacher, after watching the video and taking notes.] Each question has three to four answer choices. Some questions have but a single answer, others have multiple answers. Anyhow, as the video is viewed or the lecture is presented, students simply circle or check the answer choice or choices. Later, we go over them and students get some activity to reinforce the data presented in the video or lecture.

Example question: At the time of Muhammad, many Arabs were polytheistic. This means they believed or worshipped _?_. the goddess Polly one god many gods Jehovah

When we go over the video/lecture worksheet, I might randomly call on students to read the question and give the class the answer(s). However, since we did this activity almost two weeks ago, I have made index cards with the question and answer(s) on them, to pass out to students to stand and read aloud to their classmates. This gives most students a chance to get up out of their seats and give an academic verbal response to their classmates. I could also make up a set of cards with just the questions on them, and a set of cards with the answers and students have to pair up in front of the class to read aloud their question and its answer(s).

Next, students will put vocabulary terms (such as polytheism) in the vocabulary section their interactive notebooks,( three column format: vocabulary / definition / illustration ), then create a T - chart using other questions about the Prophet Muhammad and the main tenets of Islam as discussed in this video lecture. And hopefully review and study this data!

Hopefully, this will help start us on the week and get my students minds back to our topic of study.

What do you think? What strategies do you employ to get your students using academic responses and go over work ?

Up and outta their seats, Vocabulary Activity

2009-11-21T12:33:00.000-08:00

I teach junior high. Many of our students cannot, should not be seated all the time. So, get them moving. One strategy I employ is with vocabulary. I have a numbered list of vocabulary terms on the board. Students set up their paper in three column format ( column one: vocabulary terms, column two: definition and column three: an illustration of the vocabulary term). Students copy down the vocabulary list. I then assign each student a number and they are to define that vocabulary term. Then, when I say go, students get up and find other students who were assigned the other vocabulary terms. Students VERBALLY TELL their classmates their vocab. term and its definition, they are not to just trade/exchange notebooks and copy each others respective definitions. The listeners must copy down the word and its definition, which usually required the student to repeat their word and definition several times. Students are encouraged to validate the correctness of the definitions by asking other students for their definitions. My students like this strategy and find that time passes quickly and efficiently on days when we do this activity.

What do you do to get students moving and learning in your classroom? Please share it with us ! Thanks for reading my blog !

Do you DUDD ?

2009-11-14T15:46:00.000-08:00

Do you DUDD? Oh, you're not familiar with this acronym? DUDD is "Department Unification Dress Days". What does this mean? It means that on certain days, all members of a department are encouraged to be dressed in a similar manner. Our history department has the following DUDD's: Tuesdays is "Tie Day," Thursdays is "Hawaiian Shirt Day," and Fridays are "Khaki Slacks Day."
All members of the history department at my school are male and 80% participate in DUDD's on a regular basis.

Does your department or school DUDD ?

Work site issue

2009-10-29T20:10:00.000-07:00

Do you teach around someone who is almost always negative? What do you do about such a situation? I am close to the point where I don't want to interact at all with this teacher. Any ideas ? Talking to this person multiple times about it yielded no changes in their negativity. Changing rooms is not an option. Getting administration involved is not a good idea. Any ideas?

Pre-Reading Text materials

2009-10-20T17:20:00.000-07:00

Do you have your students pre-read history, science or other text materials? I often have a "pre-reading" activity for my seventh grade history students. I have to; too many of them arrive at seventh grade without have ever used a textbook! (thanks, open court!). Basically, I ask them a series of questions (usually on a worksheet or copied off the board to the one-third side of their student interactive notebooks). These questions are answered or statements completed (think: fill-in-the-blank) by students scanning and previewing the chapter or lesson's pictures, picture captions, charts, graphs, and other visual materials. They are not to read the paragraphs of the textbook or other text materials. Students may be asked to identify the sub-section titles and perhaps make an inference (prediction) as to the main idea/focus of that section. They list the important vocabulary terms and people (in my textbook, listed on the first page of each lesson) they need to know.

Example questions from Chapter 3, Lesson 1 of a 7th grade world history text:

1. "__________ ______ _________ ______________________ __________________________," is the title of Chapter 3, Lesson 1.

2. According to the map, "Trade Routes, AD 570," three important trade goods from
India are _________________, ______________________, and _____________________.

3. The three main ideas of Chapter 3 Lesson 1 are:

a. ____________________________ = __________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________

b._____________________________ = __________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________

c._____________________________ = ___________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________

You get the idea. Later, we go over each question, with the textbook or other text source open. If I have a class with a high percent ELL's, students can work on this activity in pairs, and I may put the page numbers where the title, picture, map, etc is located. This helps some of my ELL's because they have a hard enough time dealing with the textbook with their second or third grade English language reading levels.

What do you do to help your students learn to read text materials ? Please share with us !

Made a difference....delayed, but....

2009-10-14T20:41:00.001-07:00

This week is our schools "Parent Conference Week." One of my students who's parents (yes, both of them!), I conferenced with, were on the way out when the mother turned to me and said, "We probably should tell you something about "Katrina," (not her real name).

"Katrina" was a seventh grade student of mine a number of years ago, and the older sister of one of my current students. Anyhow, the mother proceeded to tell me how thankful they were that I'd called them about my concerns regarding "Katrina" and how at the parent-student-teacher conference, I'd insisted on going through her backpack and daily planner with them. The mother recalled us discovering a number of notes and such things, and commenting to them that some of the names listed on the "Social" page of Katrina's daily planner, were names of students who I said I wouldn't want my children associating with due to their behaviors, attitude, etc.
"You really opened up our eyes about what was going on with Katrina," the mother said. "And that got us to pay more attention to what she was doing and what we needed to do." Katrina is now in the upper stages of high school, doing ok, grade-wise, and active in positive school activities. "Anyhow," mother said,"We thought you might like to know you really made a difference for us and Katrina."

Such things are nice to hear. After all, aren't teachers supposed to "make a difference?" I hope that you other teachers out there get to hear some words like these.

Oh, and btw, if you haven't yet had your annual parent-teacher conferences, Ms. Cornelia (see my blogroll over on the left column), has some good tips for parent-teacher conferences.

Have a good rest of the week !

Dangers abound in one's classroom.....

2009-10-09T21:25:00.000-07:00

Today was a tough day for my right hand. Well, my index finger and thumb anyhow. Its good that I don't teach shop, or they might be gone. Anyhow, who'd thought refilling glue bottles could be hazardous?

I have a number of white glue bottles in my classroom, (most purchased during "back to school sales" for .20 or .25 cents each) ( I just realized that this computer key board, unlike one of my old typewriters, does not have a "cents" symbol on it....), many of my students use to glue things in their Student Interactive Notebooks.

Anyhow, I have the remains of a gallon bottle of white glue that I got from someplace here at school, and decided to spend a few minutes of prep period refilling some of the white glue bottles. Several of them were hard to open as some students get sloppy with the glue. In trying to use a too small needle nose pliers to open a few of them, I ended up giving my right index finger not one but two blood blisters from getting pinching by the pliers slipping off the glue bottle tops, then, in trying to open one bottle just using my now smarting hand, ripping a chunk of skin off the inside of my thumb from the rough edges of the glued on top of the glue bottle. This also popped one of the already smarting blood blisters.....

Sometimes, it seems Polski3 has ta feel some pain to realize that refilling a cheap bottle of white glue is not worth such physical torment.

Oh, tonight, while Mrs Polski3 and I bravely did our evening walk at the local mall, I stopped by Sears and bought a nice, new, made in USA pair of channel lock pliers that should work better against stubborn glue bottle tops.

Hope your weekend and next school days are pain-free !

Teacher Reading about Teachers

2009-10-07T20:40:00.000-07:00

In no particular order, I'd recommend any and all teachers to read the following three books:

"Up the Down Staircase" ( I don't remember the author )

"To Serve them All my Days" by Delderfield

"Teacher Man" by Frank McCourt

Any comments? Any books you'd add to the list? Please let us know !

After all these years.....

2009-10-01T19:43:00.000-07:00

After all the years I've been in the classroom, I still get questions from students that amaze me. Today, we began a new section and spent a few minutes preparing our student interactive notebooks. I asked my students to number their pages from 29 to 39, and reminded them that even numbers are on the left hand page of their SIN, odd numbers are on the right hand page. Lo and behold, one of my seventh graders asked me, "Is 29 an even or odd number?" The student was sincere in their question. I managed to keep a straight face and quietly told her, "odd."

Is it me or shouldn't seventh graders know odd and even numbers?

Have a Happy Day!

WHY is it......

2009-09-30T19:23:00.000-07:00

WHY is it that some students who earn an "F" on a test or project, gloat and lord it over those who earned a "lower percentage" F than they did ?

No Peace

2009-09-25T22:54:00.000-07:00

Teachers can't walk with their better halves at local malls (mall walking for exercise) on Friday nights without several times, hearing, "HIIIII Mr. POLSKI !" from someplace not too close to where you are ambling along getting some exercise and talking with significant other.

Life for Jr. High Teachers.

Priorities ?

2009-09-18T21:31:00.000-07:00

Just what are our priorities?

* Many teachers in California have been laid off, nay, FIRED, because they are the most recent hired and there is no money to continue to employ them.

* My high school son's science class has no lab tables and will be severely restricted on what hands-on lab experiences can be performed in his biology class because there is no money to buy the materials needed for biology lab classes.

* My son's high school orchestra class has no instruments for students to use at home to practice their music. (Note, few student musicians buy their own bass).

* According to recently published School Board minutes, our School District administers attended some summer institute in San Diego this past summer at a cost of $14,000 or so dollars.

* Schools throughout California seem to have the money to train, equip, feed on the road and bus their football, volleyball and cross-country athletes on six hour round trip bus rides to find out if their athletes are better than those from another school.

* Just how many millions of dollars did California spend on a new Language Arts book adoption ? Was it really needed? Was there some huge change in the State Standards to render the previous books unusable? And why does there seem to be a new math program every two years in California ? Is this tied in with some archaic Druid calendar to spend more money for math education?

Just what are our priorities ?

Preparing Them for their future? I wonder.....

2009-09-12T18:17:00.000-07:00

My oldest son is now in high school. He has, as a freshman, what I believe should be a fairly challenging academic schedule. His classes include GATE English 9, Geometry, and Biology. However, after four weeks of school, he seems to not have homework for most of his classes. He has regular homework and a project to work on for his GATE English 9 class, but he does not have homework for Biology or Geometry.
I know that when I was in high school, and later in college, I had lots of "out of class" work to do for science and math classes.
I attended his school's "Back to School" night last week. In most of his classes, we were told that homework was worth very little of the grade. His biology classroom does not have lab tables/desks, just student desks, and we were told that due to budgetary issues, the biology students would not experience many actual lab activities. I got the impression that work for most classes was done in class (worksheets!) and they took quizzes and tests.
I wonder if, as a staff, most of the teachers in our local high schools have "given up" on having required homework because too many of their students simply will not do it and turn it in, or if these teachers simply do not want to grade it? I do know that school administrators are "after" teachers because "you teachers are GIVING too many F's."
This bothers me for several reasons. first of all, I wonder how well this policy/attitude toward assigned homework is preparing these students, my son included, for future academic experiences? And it bothers me, a teacher of junior high students, in that we try to get our students used to the fact that homework is part of their academic life and they need to develop good academic skills here at the junior high so that they will be prepared for what I hoped (and assumed) would be more rigor and higher levels of academic expectations at the high school.

As a parent, I am wondering how much to bang my head on that brick wall of the high school in terms of what I believe they should be doing to help my son be prepared for University. As a teacher, is my expectation that my students do homework to practice skills they need to master, to learn the main concepts, vocabulary, etc., of the courses I teach, a moot exercise ?

What do you think ? Do you have a child in high school that does not seem to be rigorous or preparing him/her for University? (Has my experience of what to expect at college/university been changed?) I welcome your thoughts and comments.

They're BAAAAACCCCKKKKK !

2009-08-24T17:17:00.000-07:00

THEY have returned, quiet, ok, fairly quiet, sitting there in my desks with sort of a glazed look upon their young faces. "Half" a day, no, more like 3/4ths of a day. Voice held out today....predict will not have much voice in three days time.....just SO much to present to incoming 7th graders, most of whom will be just SO totally overwhelmed by this massive bombardment of new information about the school, history, science, language arts, math, physical education, etc., that within two days time, they'll implode........

So, how was YOUR first day back ?

Historical Ignorance to sell Electronic Games?

2009-08-10T14:50:00.001-07:00

The ever lovely Mrs. Polski3 and I often do our walks at a nearby indoor mall when the weather outside is not conducive to being outside. Like most malls in the USA, there is an electronic game shop there, selling modules for a variety of electronic game systems.

Recently, they have displayed a poster for a game called Wolfenstein or something like that. I am guessing it is some sort of armies of the dead game in that the character shown on the poster is a skull with a World War II Axis-side topper (hat). I personally have nothing against people gaming to recreate historical military events or even fantasy encounters; however the hat on this character displays a symbol that is, to many people, one of Nazi horrors and atrocities, the SS Death's Head.

What I wonder is this. Do the mostly young people who will buy and play this game even realize what that symbol represents? Do their parents know? While I am not Jewish, I personally know several Jewish people who would be very offended by such a public display that includes such a symbol. And if I'd had members of my family robbed, taunted, humiliated, arrested, tortured, starved, raped, medically experimented upon, gassed and machine gunned down, I would be offended by it.

So, what is the point of this post? That it is ok to include some "historical" symbol to help sell a game or other product because hardly anyone knows just what that symbol represents ? Please don't tell me about the First Amendment to our US Constitution; I don't think it applies here because of what that symbol represents (or, have our courts said otherwise?). Or is it just that not enough people know or care about what happened "way back then" ?

Anyhow, it is my opinion that if you purchase something like this game, you condone what that symbol represents. And to me, that is all the more reason History must be taught to the young people. Things like what happened in Europe in the early half of the 20th century should never again happen. But there must be an awareness of what happened.....it must be taught.

Thanks for reading this post.

Summer, 2oo9

2009-08-01T21:38:00.000-07:00

Hello, anybody out there? Polski hasn't posted for awhile. There are many reasons for this, but anyhow, here I am to tell you some about my summer.

In short, Polski went to some new and exotic places, discovered a new (for me), musical group, spent kid-less time with Mrs. Polski and done some reading. Polski has not done a few things that he's thought about doing, such as dealing with boxes of teaching stuff piled up in the garage, cutting some wood into smaller, fireplace sized pieces and getting my "study" organized.

Anyhow, some of the highlights were a teacher field trip with the "Teaching American History" government grant program. We went to Mass. and NY, two places I'd never visited. From California, we took off in the early morning over the Pacific Ocean, then turned and flew towards the rising sun. That night, we went to bed with a "June Nor'Easterner" rattling our motel windows in Plymouth, Massachusetts. I think it is just so neat that one can be on one side of our continent in the morning, get on an airplane and be on the other side of the continent hours later.

Massachusetts has SO much history to see and learn little details about, but we were limited on what time we could spend there. In the wind and rain, we visited Plymoth Plantation and the Mayflower II sailing ship at Plymouth. In Boston, we saw Paul Revere's house, the Old and New Massachusetts State Houses, stood on the cobblestones where the "Boston Massacre" took place, and visited a classroom at Harvard (which we were shocked to see, still had a chalk board with bits of chalk for the professor/lecturer/T.A. to write with). We briefly toured Old Sturbridge Village (1830's era N.E. farming life), the old Mills at Lowell, Mass., ( I never water power could "power" all that manufacturing equipment; oh the minds that thought of that !), and Hancock Shaker Village out in far Western Massachusetts.

We also got to NY; we visited FDR's house and the FDR Presidential Library, saw the place where "Orange County Choppers" are created (which was a big deal to some of the tour participants, I was not one who was at all interested in this), we visited our US Military Academy at West Point and Manhattan.
This trip saw us drive over and under the Hudson River, and "sail" upon it on a ferry boat that stopped at the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. [ BTW, 2oo9 is the 400th Anniversary of Henry Hudson's "discovery" and brief exploration of the Hudson River ], In Manhattan, we visited, very briefly, Ellis Island, saw where the new construction is happening where the World Trade Towers used to be and, that evening, many tour participants went to a "Broadway" show ( which were disappointed to many of them, mostly due to the cramped seating). Polski, however, hiked over to Grand Central Station and took a train to Conn. where one of my brothers lives. He treated me to dinner at his Yacht Club and I got to have a nice to visit with him and his family. After a quick, whirlwind time of this trip, it was and very pleasant to sit for awhile to visit, and eat a nice dinner watching the sun set over Long Island Sound at a yacht club. Several tour participants were a bit shocked that I would go away on a train to another state and then return in time to catch our tour bus to our motel of the night.

I wish we'd had more time; several things I would have really liked to see or do include visiting the USS Constitution in Boston, visiting Fenway Park ( its history; the oldest major league baseball park in the world ! ), visited Bunker (Breeds) Hill, Lexington and Concord and other American Revolutionary War sites. I also wish I'd stopped off at one of the several NYC Irish pubs I walked past on my return from Grand Central Station to our pick up point. As it turned out, I had time to tip a half pint or so. Oh well, guess I'll have to go back someday. There is just SO much to see in this great nation of ours !

I don't know exactly where it is coming from, but I've recently developed an interest in "Irish" style music. Maybe its from listening to fiddles in some of my favorite country music songs? I don't know. Anyhow, a couple of my favorites are Metallica's version of "Whiskey in the Jar" and a tune called "Black and Tans". This summer, I "discovered" a group that is labeled "Celtic Punk," an L.A. band called "Flogging Molly," whose lead man is apparently Irish. Several of their tunes are, IMO, cool; "Drunken Lullabies," "What's left of the Flag," "Black Friday Rule" and "Devil's Dance Floor". Maybe I'll check out some of the "older" traditional groups like the Dubliners. Anyhow, If "Irish" style music is of any interest to you, check out Flogging Molly on YouTube or whatever modern musical digital jukebox thing you might know about.

Polski's sons went to summer camp; BOTH at the same time. Mrs. Polski and I got away by ourselves to a cool (as in temperature) part of California for a few relaxing, enjoyable days.

I hope you have had a Great Summer. If you want more details or have questions about my trip, feel free to ask.

Interactive Notebooks

2009-05-11T20:56:00.000-07:00

Well, IMO, the interactive notebook experiment is going fairly well. Most of my students have a spiral notebook and are creating their interactive notebooks according to my instructions. There are a few students who are using three-ring binders for the SIN's (Student Interactive Notebook), and thats OK, as long as they construct it properly and keep it solely as their History SIN. I have recommended to a couple of three-ring binder users to invest in some hole reinforcers to keep things neat and intact.

Students were able to use their SIN's on our last test. Most thought it was cool and a few lightbulbs lit up as several realized that their SIN was a tool of value. My principal came in once, and looked at a few SIN's and asked the kids about them; several responded that it made it easier to keep everything in one place (a BIG issue for many middle school level students!).

However, as with everything we do in the classroom, there are a few glitches. Some students are still writing kinda "big" and notes that should fit on one page are not fitting on one of their pages. (solution - continue notes on a sheet of notebook paper, carefully trim off excess bits and glue it into SIN on the same page as the "first part" of their notes.

Student have to be careful with the glue. Several have glued pages together. I have about 15 bottles of white glue for students to use and at gluing times, caution them about wasting it and using too much. "Mr. Polski, my paper is damp and all wrinkled !!!" "Yes D.S., thats because you just about soaked that bit of paper with glue....next time, just use a thin stream of glue around the edges !" If you are going to do interactive notebooks with you students, have several gallons of white glue to use; you'll probably need it!

Part of SIN's is to show student creativity. My students are not getting too creative with their SIN's. Then again, as I have blogged about in the past, many students don't seem to have much experience with art; drawing things and thinking of how to visually present something of an academic/historical nature. I guess NCLB and its "pass-the-test" in English and Math only drumbeat have deprived our children of such learning opportunities to develop artistically.

This summer, I will put in written requests for donations of spiral notebooks, color pencils and glue to our local big box type stores. I provided several students with spiral notebooks or three-ring binders to use. But I can't and won't buy this stuff for all my students. My principal might buy some spiral notebooks for us to use next year, but the money for schools here in California is fixing to get even tighter for next year [ I doubt California's propositions that we are to vote on next week will pass - many voters see that CTA is pouring thousands of dollars into it and it is supported (and proposed) by California's big tax and spend, spend, spend legislators, then they will vote NO ! to send a message to those deaf ears in Sacramento. ]

But, so far, SIN's are working out just fine. I will be doing this next year.
Thanks for reading this. Your comments are welcome !

Interactive Notebooks.....what's cookin' so far.

2009-04-08T20:45:00.000-07:00

Here is, at least the written data, what I have worked up to use for my attempts to use Interactive Notebooks. Much of this has been borrowed, pirated, stolen etc. from various websites that nice teachers have made available to the public. However, I have added a new page; Tools. This is a page with tips for creativity, with sample graphic organizers, and other "tools" for students to use in their learning.
There is a grading rubric that I got at the recent CLMS conference, but it is not here. Anyhow, here are five items, the SIN Data page, The Right Side, The Left Side,
a Tools page item, and a list of things for students to keep in mind regarding their SIN.

#1

The Student Interactive Notebook (SIN)

The Student Interactive Notebook is a learning tool that many students have found to be very useful in learning the material for their academic classes. Many find it useful because most of what they need is there in their Student Interactive Notebook. By correctly creating your SIN, you will find that this helps you learn the material for this history class.

Your SIN will include the following, in your spiral notebook:

* Title Page (includes name of class, grade level, student name,
Teacher name and class room number)
* This SIN Data page
* The Left Side instructions
* The Right Side instructions
* Grading Rubric / Things to Think About
* Tools pages
* Table of Contents Pages - List the name of the activity, page number,
and a place for activity grades to be recorded
* Unit Title pages - contain the title of the unit and some relevant
pictures and or symbols.

Materials needed:

# Spiral Notebook of 70 - 120 pages. The smaller sized 8 x 10.5
spiral notebooks will work, but the full-sized, 8.5 x 11.5 is BEST.
# color pencils
# regular pencils
# blue and black ink pens (no markers or gel pens)
# glue sticks (or small bottle of plain white glue). This is to glue
things into your SIN; handouts, foldables, etc.
# binder pouch to keep your supplies

o You must bring your STUDENT INTERACTIVE
NOTEBOOK to class each day!

#2

The Right Side

The Right side of your Student Interactive Notebook is for INPUT, that is, what we do in class. You must put the following on the right side of your SIN:

* any information given in class
* Cornell style Notes^ from teacher
* Cornell style Notes^ from textbook or other text activities
* Cornell style Notes^ from audio/visual activities
* new vocabulary
* In-class assignments
* tests and quizzes
* Class opener activities
* Instructions about projects and upcoming activities
* homework questions or instructions
* quick write activities
* Think - Write - Pair - Share Activities
* Critical Thinking Activities
* KWL (Know - Want to Know - Learn) Activities
* Comprehension questions
* Basically, everything we do in class!

~ ALL of your pages must have a date in the upper right hand
corner and page number at the bottom right hand corner.
~ ALL pages must have a title up at the top of the page

^ Cornell style Notes includes dividing your page into a one-third and a two-thirds section, Notes, vocabulary, and illustrations all go in the two-third column. The one-third section is for questions. Your Cornell style notes should also include a summary and illustrations.

#3

The Left Side

The left side of your Student Interactive Notebook is for Student work, that is, the things you do to demonstrate your understanding of the class data. The left page demonstrates your understanding of the information from the right side page. You work with the input and INTERACT with the information in creative, unique and individual ways. The left side incorporates and reflects how you learn History and Social Studies as well as what you learn in History and Social Studies. The following things go on the left side of your SIN:

* Homework directions
* graphic organizers
* Venn diagrams
* dialogues
* I AM poems
* drawings, photos, and sketches that illustrate the concept,
idea or facts
* Reflective writing assignments
* Mnemonic devices
* timelines
* mini-posters
* 4x, 4+4, 6x, 6+6 activities
* “Ticket out the Door,” Daily Summary and other daily closure
activities
* Biography Activities
* maps
* Other things as assigned

THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT THE LEFT SIDE:

~ Every left side page gets used.
~ Always use color...It helps the brain learn and organize
information.
~ Be sure each page is numbered with the number at the lower
left hand corner of the page.

#4

<~><~><~><~><~><~><~><~><~><~><~><~><~><~><~><~><~><~>

Tools: Some Graphic Techniques:
(to help you be creative in your learning!)
* Size of letters * Boldness of letters
* Capital letters * Indentations
* Underlining * Bullets
* Use of color * Drawings
* Diagrams * Embellished letters
* highlighting * decorative backgrounds
* put it in a box * decorative borders
or other geometric
shape
<~><~><~><~><~><~><~><~><~><~><~><~><~><~><~><~><~><~>

#5

Ten Things to Think About:

1. Is every page filled out?
2. Is your table of contents page up-to-date?
3. Is your SIN as neat as possible?
4. Is the correct information on the correct page?
5. Is THIS my BEST work?
6. How can I make my work better?
7. Do any pages need repair?
8. Have I been creative?
9. Have I been absent and need to check Mr. Edwards’
Teacher Interactive Notebook?
10. Do I need any materials/supplies for my SIN?

Please forgive my lack of computer skills in having each page nicely formatted and ready to click on to print out that perfect copy for your own use. Your comments and suggestions are hoped for....is calling this Student Interactive Notebook, SIN, too much ? It is also highly recommended several places I saw online, that the teacher keep a Teacher Interactive Notebook as a "master" copy of what students should have and which students can refer to at times.

Thanks for reading this blog. Again, your comments and suggestions are hoped for !

Have a great Easter Weekend !

XoXoX Polski3

Interactive Student Notebooks

2009-03-29T12:01:00.001-07:00

Years ago, in the mid 1990's, our History department adopted the Teacher's Curriculum Institute (TCI) supplemental materials for Grade 7 World History and Grade 8 US History, we had two sets of binders full of lessons, slides, etc. Part of the TCI approach was the use of Student Interactive Notebooks. We began to tinker around with Interactive Notebooks. I tried it for a year or two; it was successful and at times, stressful. From what I recall, most members of the history department didn't even try it. Anyhow, here is what TCI says about Interactive Notebooks ( this is copied and pasted directly off their website):

"Interactive Student Notebook
Many student notebooks are drab repositories of information filled with uninspired, unconnected, and poorly understood ideas. Interactive Student Notebooks, however, allow students to record information about history in an engaging way. As students learn new ideas, they use several types of writing and innovative graphic techniques to record and process them. Students use critical-thinking skills to organize information and ponder historical questions, which promotes creative and independent thinking. In Interactive Student Notebooks, key ideas are underlined in color or highlighted; Venn diagrams show relationships; cartoon sketches show people and events; timelines illustrate chronology; indentations and bullets indicate subordination; arrows show cause-and-effect relationships. Students develop graphical thinking skills and are often more motivated to explore and express high-level concepts.

1. Make sure students have appropriate materials.
To create Interactive Student Notebooks, students must bring these materials to class each day:
• an 8 1/2-by-11-inch spiral-bound notebook, with at least 100 pages

• a pen

• a pencil with an eraser

• two felt-tip pens of different colors

• two highlighters of different colors

• a container for all of these (purse, backpack, vinyl packet)

2. Have students record class notes on the right side of the notebook.
The right side of the notebook—the “input” side—is used for recording class notes, discussion notes, and reading notes. Typically, all “testable” information is found here. Historical information can be organized in the form of traditional outline notes. However, the right side of the notebook is also an excellent place for the teacher to model how to think graphically by using illustrated outlines, flow charts, annotated slides, T-charts, and other graphic organizers. There are many visual ways to organize historical information that enhance understanding. The right side of the notebook is where the teacher organizes a common set of information that all students must know.

3. Have students process information on the left side of the notebook.
The left side—the “output” side—is primarily used for processing new ideas. Students work out an understanding of new material by using illustrations, diagrams, flow charts, poetry, colors, matrices, cartoons, and the like. Students explore their opinions and clarify their values on controversial issues, wonder about “what if ” hypothetical situations, and ask questions about new ideas. And they review what they have learned and preview what they will learn. By doing so, students are encouraged to see how individual lessons fit into the larger context of a unit and to work with and process the information in ways that help them better understand history. The left side of the notebook stresses that writing down lecture notes does not mean students have learned the information. They must actively do something with the information before they internalize it.

In short,

Left Side: Student-Processing, “Output”

Right Side: Teacher-Directed, “Input” " http://info.teachtci.com/forum/isn.aspx

A google search will take you to several good pages and examples of student interactive notebooks. There is a wiki page devoted to interactive notebooks found here: http://interactive-notebooks.wikispaces.com/

So, why am I thinking of trying interactive notebooks again? For several reasons. My reasons include my trying to cut down on the number of "ditto" copies I run. The fact that I seem to have too many students who cannot find individual papers in the mess of their backpacks and binders. The fact that I don't want to start what I consider a grade school thing of having a "folder" in each class for each student to put their work into. The fact that for the most part, much of what students need to have to study, review and help prepare for tests and quizzes should be in one place, their spiral notebook that is their interactive notebook. I have on order a new book about using interactive notebooks " Marcia J. Carter, et al "Interactive Notebooks and English Language Learners: How to Scaffold Content for Academic Success" which I ordered from Amazon.com. The idea of using this tool with ELL's is something that has prompted me to try Interactive Notebooks again.

Here is some of what I learned at the CLMS Conference workshop I attended for Interactive Notebooks:

Each notebook has a title page with name of class, student name, class period, and the name of their teacher.

Notebook expectations --- sort of like a contract signed by student and a parent.

Data about what goes on the Left-side pages: summaries, reflections, poems, headlines, graphic organizers, cartoons, illustrations, etc, All for the student to demonstrate their learning and understanding of the data from the right side page. It allows students to be creative and unique. The top of each left-side page will begin with the Title, date and directions.

On the Right-side pages, is data from class. It can include Openers/bell ringer activities, notes from the teacher, textbook, power point presentation or other a/v presentation, new vocabulary, homework questions, in-class assignments, checking for understanding quizzes, project notes, etc. In short, whatever is done in class.

No, you are not limited to one right-hand page per class period.

Table of Content pages. Note: PAGES. In a 100-page spiral notebook, there should be three or four pages dedicated to a table of contents. These pages have columns for page numbers, Left side items, Right side items and grades.

You can also include an interactive notebook grading rubric.

Students probably need a good chunk of a class period to set up their interactive notebooks. Teachers need to keep on hand, glue and scissors for students to use in class. ( I do recall hassles with scissors disappearing and blobs of glue being left on desks and seats for the next class period to find....part of the "stressful" aspects from the first time I tried this idea. )

After students set up their title page, Contract, Data sheets explaining what goes on the left and right sides, table of contents pages, etc, they need to number their pages....ALL of the pages in their notebook.

Then, you, the teacher, needs to get ready and make adjustments to how you teach. This was hard for me, years ago.

Also, encourage students to obtain the "normal" size spiral notebooks, the ones with 8.5 x 11 inch size pages. There are others, slightly smaller ones that are (I think), 8.5 x 10.5. Those smaller ones are usually the cheap ones found at Staples, K-Mart, Wal-Mart, etc., for like ten cents each, especially during "back to school" days in August. The smaller ones will work, but they also have fewer pages in each notebook. I plan to write a letter to our local Staples, Wal-Mart, K-Mart and Costco to see if they will donate some spiral notebooks and glue sticks for my students to use. I do recall, that when we/I first tried Interactive notebooks, some students never came up with a spiral notebook for whatever reason, and at that time, we had a principal that was adamant that we could not "FORCE" any of our students to have any particular item of school supplies for class. She told us that if we were requiring them to have a spiral notebook for YOUR classes, then you go buy them for your students. Come to think of it, THAT is probably what really killed this idea back then.

Oh, grading Interactive Notebooks.....it is suggested that the teacher cruises around the room at times when students are working on something to check certain items in their interactive notebooks, that the notebooks are collected every couple of weeks for evaluation, or that some items in the interactive notebook are graded by students (peer grading).

One note about required materials for the interactive notebooks: at my school, students are NOT to have felt markers or highlighters. I ask my students to use colored pencils. Besides, if they color something in their interactive notebooks using markers, it usually bleeds through the page and can obliterate whatever is on the other side of the page.

They do require some work and effort, but for those who are using them, they say interactive notebooks are a great tool for helping students learn and stay organized.

Do you use interactive notebooks? IF so, share your experiences with us. Thanks for reading this blog.

California League of Middle Schools 2oo9 Conference

2009-03-21T12:58:00.000-07:00

Been busy lately.....anyhow, here are some snippets from last weekends CLMS 2oo9 Conference.

I found out that some map publishers have five oceans on their maps. Yep, there are the Pacific, Indian, Atlantic and Arctic, and now, some maps are showing the Southern Ocean or Antarctic Ocean. How many of you have heard this bit of geographic news? Wow, I said when I found this out. When I got home, I checked my current textbook, published by McDougal-Litell, jcopyright 2oo6, and WHOA, there it was, the Southern Ocean. However, National Geographic web maps, copyright 2oo3, did not have Antarctic or Southern Ocean on those maps. Did I miss the news report about this?

Speaking of publishers, I also found out, that McDougal-Litell is "no mas". They are now part of the Holt family of textbook publishers. Members of my department had not heard this news either. However, my principal knew about it due to the current Language Arts book adoption. So, I guess the history books we "adopted" will no longer be available if we need to buy some new ones? The publishers rep that I spoke to at CLMS did not know the answer to this question. Anyhow, I encouraged my department chair and principal to try to buy some additional copies of our current, fairly new texts to have on hand to replace those that are too damaged, lost etc.

My workshop went well, for the most part. I ran out of time, but I believe, from the feedback I got from the dozen or so who came in the closing hours of this conference, that they got some good strategies in engaging middle school students in Social Studies. Kudos to our nice representative from Nystrom maps; she provided me with several wall maps to use in my workshop and brought along free copies of Nystrom geographical and historical atlases to give to my audience. (I use several Nystrom map products in my classroom and can highly recommend them for any level social studies classroom !)

I attended several interesting and not so interesting workshops. I found out a bit more about using interactive notebooks. I have been thinking about trying this again (I once tried using them eons ago, well, ok, maybe not eons, but at least 10-15 years ago, with minimal success). Anyhow, I am thinking that many of my students, that hoard of them who spend countless minutes in class in an attempt to find what they need in the dark depths of their crumpled paper packed backpacks or flipping through piles of papers in a pocket of their three-ring binders, would benefit from having much of what they need in a simple spiral notebook. I don't like messing with scissors and glue, but it may be workable....Do any of you use interactive notebooks? If so, please share with me (us), how it works for you. For you who are curious about interactive notebooks, there are many samples, directions, ideas, etc., available via a simple search engine web search.

I got a free lunch too, courtesy of the TCI (Teacher's Curriculum Institute) folks. They have been holding meetings/luncheons at various teacher conferences to get feedback about their textbook materials. My school has the old TCI binders for Grades 7 and 8 World History and U.S. History and some of us use some of those activities. IMO, TCI's newer textbook type program is a pretty good one. If I had seen it when we were adopting history texts a couple of years ago, it would have been a top contender, in my book. But, we never received an samples from them. Anyhow, I appreciate the free lunch and the fact that the TCI people wanted our opinion about their products. Our current text publisher has never asked us for any feedback, nor have we heard from them about problems we've encountered (such as powerpoint programs that are unadaptable, easily tearing pages in the textbook, areas on reproducibles that have dark, hard to print with duplo machines stuff on them.....). TCI also gave us a preview of changes that are in the works with their material. And, in their raffle, I won a teacher kit for their Ancient World History program.

I attended part of one of the keynote speeches. While there, hunkered along one wall, a teacher was next to me, grading papers as she listened to the speech. I glanced at the pile of graded papers that lay between us and asked if I could see one. She was grading a grade 8 US History activity, which was an e-mail dialog between Col. William B. Travis at the Alamo and Mexican Army General Santa Ana. It was cool ! I talked briefly to her about it and she gave me a blank copy of her grading rubric for that activity. I can see such an activity used for a discussion between Hannibal and Scipio at Zama, Julius Caesar and Vercingetrix at Alesia, Saladin and Richard I at Jerusalem, (which I plan to do soon), the Pope and Martin Luther, Lord Cornwallis and George Washington at Yorktown, US Grant and Robert E. Lee at Appomattox, etc. etc. You never know when a good idea for teaching will find you!

The last thing I will say about this 2oo9 CLMS conference is that there didn't seem to be too many vendors set up in the exhibition hall. And, they packed up early. I attribute this to the economy. Its expensive to be a vendor at these conventions, and when school districts and teachers don't have much money to spend.....

Thanks for reading my blog. have a great next week!

Updating YOU

2009-03-07T09:07:00.000-08:00

Are you a teacher who updates yourself? Are you a teacher who pretty much does the same thing each school year ? I am excited about going to next weekends CLMS (California League of Middle Schools) Conference as an opportunity to update me. Yes, I am also presenting, but here is an opportunity to go to some workshops specifically tailored for middle-level students and add to my ever-growing tool box of techniques, ideas, etc., for helping my students learn what the State of California hopes for them to learn. As I heard someone say once, a workshop or inservice is of value if you can find at least one new thing that you can use in your classroom. I believe this to be true.

Some teachers complain of being "stuck" or "chained" or "enslaved" in teaching. I wonder if they update themselves? Isn't "variety" the spice of life? I know those of you who have taught for a number of years have learned that curriculum changes, new expectations are added to existing expectations, students change and that over time, we develop a tool box of ideas, techniques, etc. to help teach the basics and beyond to our students. Update yourself. Challenge yourself to make you a better teacher. Maybe THIS is the time, during this long March march towards Spring/Easter Break, to find something new and exciting to inject into your classroom. Do it for you and for your students.

How do you "update" yourself? Please share it with us!

Thanks for reading this post. Have a good weekend and Great second week of March !

RIP Paul Harvey

2009-02-28T21:47:00.000-08:00

When I got online this evening, I saw that the great radio man Paul Harvey had passed away. God, what a voice, what a way to tell us the news and try to sell us a Select Comfort bed (which he helped do) or a Bose wave radio (someday). In my younger days of piddling around with Journalism, I used to be able to hear Paul Harvey proudly announce, "STAND BY FOR NEWS!" I'd always wished I could write like he could speak.

And, as a history person, I loved his great "And now, HERE'S the REST OF THE STORY." I have missed listening to Paul Harvey News. Now he's gone. I did find out by reading the article, that he got his start in Tulsa. I didn't know Paul was an Okie. But, where ever he was born, America has lost one of our Greats. I wish peace to his wife Angel and his family.

Funding CUTS for California Education - Here's a money saving Idea !

2009-02-21T09:57:00.000-08:00

Well, I see our comrades in the People's Congress, oops, I mean the California State Legislature have decided that their continued spending must be helped by cutting Eight Billion Dollars from California Public Schools.

Sadly, I'll predict that the cuts will come to schools; teachers, instructional aides, school medical staff, supplies (including textbooks!) will be cut. There will be fewer athletic activities for high school students (our local h.s. district is eliminating freshman sports). How many cuts will come from the State Department of Education? County Offices of Education? School District Offices? Because of the huge amount being cut, probably a few token jobs. But it will be the children, especially the struggling children in California schools who will bear the brunt of this act by California's so-called leaders.

Here is an idea to save most school districts some money. Change the rules for teachers retirement. Offer those teachers with 25+ years teaching in California the opportunity to retire at age 55 with the same benefits they'd receive by retiring at age 60+. Everyone knows, "newer" teachers are cheaper. There is public press blathering about the newer, energetic younger teachers always losing their jobs because of the unions and their staunch stand on seniority; "last hired,first fired." This would create jobs for those younger, more energetic new teachers.

Yes, Polski3 happens to be in that category of having 25+ years in California public schools when I hit age 55. I'd be happy to retire at that time, if I received the benefits currently only available for those who retire at age 60+. But with the current system, if I went out at age 55, I'd only get about half of what I'd get at age 60+.

HEY CTA, are you listening to this? Here is something you can push for many of your members ! Remember them?

No Changes Forcast for California History-Soc. Sci. Content Standards

2009-02-10T20:07:00.000-08:00

I received today, an interesting e-mail from the folks at TCI (Teacher's Curriculum Institute), which included this:

"News from California Department of Education
The California Department of Education (CDE) is updating the Framework for History-Social Sciences to ensure that it reflects the current research and best practices in history education. The work on the 2010 framework began last year when CDE conducted teacher focus groups at four locations across the state. At these sessions teachers shared what they liked and disliked about the current framework and what they thought should be incorporated into the new framework. At these sessions, CDE staff was careful to note that the changes to the frameworks will not include any modifications of the current History-Social Science Content Standards. These can only be changed when there is legislation that directs CDE to update or modify content standards.

The next step in the framework revision process is to begin the writing. In early February, a committee of 20 educators will be looking at creating new chapters on assessment and universal access, two areas that teachers in the focus groups wanted to see expanded.

TCI will be at each of the framework committee meetings and will bring you the latest on changes through this newsletter. If you would like a sneak peek of what to expect from the framework committee, take a look at the California Framework and Evaluation Criteria Committee Guidelines that have been approved by the State Board of Education. You can find these on the CDE Web site at http://www.cde.ca.gov/ci/hs/cf/hsscfccguidelines.asp. "

I had heard that something was in the works to change the California State Framework for Social Studies. I would have been interested in attending one of those meetings and being part of a "committee of educators" who are to be involved in this process. However, I am saddened to see this part:

"CDE staff was careful to note that the changes to the frameworks will not include any modifications of the current History-Social Science Content Standards. These can only be changed when there is legislation that directs CDE to update or modify content standards."

Why am I saddened by this? Take a look at the standards for California History-Social Science. They are HUGE. H U G E ! There is way too much stuff in there, so much that I do not believe the majority of it gets taught. Yes, some of it is "covered," but not taught. There is simply too much there.

And, since the focus of NCLB will apparently remain Language Arts and Math, I foresee little hope that much History and Social Studies will be taught in our Elementary schools; History and Social Studies will continue to be the neglected foster child of lower level education, especially at school districts such as the one where I teach that consists of mostly "failing" (by NCLB standards) schools.

However, with Polski3 looking at something positive for a change, I see that it requires "legislative action to update or modify content standards." I can and will share my thoughts, feelings, opinions and ideas regarding our current Californian History-SS content standards with my elected reps in Sacramento.

Thanks for reading this post. Have a Super rest of the week !

Calif. League of Middle Schools Conference

2009-02-03T20:46:00.001-08:00

Any of you other MS/JHS teachers going to this years California League of Middle Schools Conference in San Diego, March 12-15 ? I'm going, and will be presenting. It should be fun. The last time I presented a workshop at a teachers conference, it was at CLMS in San Diego, on March 11, 1995. I did my presentation (Science Activities for US History) and was heading for the commercial displays, when another teacher from my school stopped me and told me the conference organizers were trying to find me. I went to the conference organizers area and found out that Mrs. Polski3 has called and I was needed at home ASAP. I quickly left San Diego for the drive home, and at 9:24 PM that evening, our first son was born. (He was two weeks or so early....but a healthy, hungry baby boy!)....damn, he's going into high school NEXT semester....has it been THAT long ????

Anyhow, THAT won't happen this time. Maybe some ms/jhs bloggers could meet sometime during this conference ?

History Interventions

2009-02-01T11:32:00.000-08:00

Our department has also been tasked to find interventions for re-teaching material students as a group did not score too well on based on our department test scores. I've done google searched for "history interventions" and pretty much come up with blanks. We've been told by administration to use the test questions that students as a group did not score well on, as opener (bell ringer) questions. IMO, this might work fine for subjects such as math and Language Arts, but since history is taught more topically, having opener questions about "Contributions of Ancient Rome" does not go too well when our current topic of study is China. We as a department are not too willing to take out a day or two to go back to try to "reteach" that material that as a group, our students did not score well on in the department tests. We have too many standards to try to touch on.

Our 8th Grade US History people, they are being expected to go back to "touch on" World History standards for grades 6 and 7, as well as some stuff from grade 5 US History. ( please note, that in the public school district where I teach, our feeder schools do not teach much, if any history; the vast majority of our students come to us knowing almost nothing about the past history of people on this planet nor do they know such basic things as the names of the oceans and continents or being able to read a map to determine names of countries from names of cities, mountains, etc.) I try to also cover some of the "A-ranked" Grade Six history standards while teaching my Grade Seven standards. But there is just so little time and way too many standards. I really wish the folks at the California State Department of Education would get their heads out of their (you know whats), find out what really happens in classrooms and talk to the "experts" ( teachers )and develop History/Social Studies Standards with what is really vital and important in helping our students become educated, good citizens with a grasp of history, geography and civic understanding.

Do you "re-teach" history ? What do you do regarding History interventions?

No Homework equals TOO MANY F's

2009-02-01T11:14:00.000-08:00

At my school, there are more students in our history classes earning "below proficient" and "far below proficient" grades than ever before. In meeting as a department, we find that for the vast majority of these students is because they are not turning in homework. We debated on the nature of our homework ( which can be anything from working on projects, reading text materials, working on social studies skills activities and or demonstrating comprehension of material covered in class. ).

I try to assign my students who did not turn in homework time after school to come in to make it up with me there if they need help or clarification with it. If for some reason the student absolutely cannot come after school for me, I have an option for them of getting the work, doing it at home then having a parent sign it to indicate the parent knows it is make up work. I also mark students daily planners when they do not have their assignment to turn in. Other teachers say, "too bad, you had your chance," to holding make up work sessions on Saturday mornings.
We almost have to have these alternative options because many of our students are in some sort of remedial after school program for "subjects that are test important."

Is this lack of turning in homework an issue at your school, in your classroom ? What do you do about a lack of effort ? Please share it with us !

Dark Future ------ Student teacher ----Super Bowl Comments

2009-01-31T08:46:00.000-08:00

Mrs. Polski3 substituted in a lower elementary classroom for two days last week.
One of her students was just returning to class from being suspended from school. His offense? While in the principals office for a variety of offenses, the principal was called out of her office for a minute. While she was gone, this young thug saw her purse and attempted to steal her cell phone from it ! What will this kid be doing in ten years? I hope he'd not in my classes in a few years.

I have a student teacher for the next seven weeks. Anyone wish to offer an advice I can pass on to her ?

As for this weekends BIG event, GO Cardinals! You know, I always wondered what Archie Manning woulda done with a better group of professional athletes around him. I guess maybe we got a glimpse of this with his sons play in the NFL. I also wondered the same thing about one of my "youthful" sorta heros, St. Louis Cardinals QB Jim Hart. Even though the Cards' aren't one of my "A" list teams to follow, they still rate higher than many other teams. I respect the Steeler's and the great team they've put together, I like tough D, but I hope the Cards day has finally arrived.
At least I think it will be a SUPER game.

Have a SUPER Weekend !

Burr....it was cold....Family Funeral

2009-01-29T17:31:00.000-08:00

I haven't had much time to blog. Been busy with teaching and it was the end of our first semester.

Also flew to Chicago on short notice to attend a funeral. My father's older sister died. She was the last of her generation, the matriarch of the Polish side of my family. She was mother to two of my cousins, wife to three good, highly educated, professional men, a teacher, and a lawyer. She helped start a teachers union and she was always generous in helping her family (parents, brothers, nephews, nieces, great-nieces, etc.). She was especially generous and helpful with the younger generations of the family and assisted many of them in their quest for post-high school education. She was a bit miffed with me that I hadn't gone to school to further my education past my BA and minor degrees. Once she implied that I'd been too negatively influenced by one of her brothers. But I said, no, that was not the reason. Anyhow.....

My aunt suffered a stroke in mid-December while waiting to go to a holiday party. And, as was typical of her, was upset that she was missing holiday parties and several court dates. But, she didn't recover from her stroke and subsequent infection. We think she decided it was time to go. She lived a long, productive life and after each tragedy ( she survived all three husbands ), always bounced back. A family joke referred to never seeming to end energy levels. She passed on to her next appointments. Oh, and for those of you who may care about such things, she graduated from the University of Chicago School of Law in 1945. She is now buried at the "head of the line" next to her husbands. She has them buried all in a row, with her spot at the head of the line next to husband number three.

When we were in Chicago, it was on the cool side. Saturday, the day of the funeral, it was about 10 degrees. THIS is quite different than the almost 80 degrees I left in warmer Southern California. When we departed on Sunday morning, it was about 3 degrees. Fortunately, there was no new snow while we were there, and the roads were not icy. We got to visit with many of my cousins; eight of her ten nieces and nephews were there. I got a bit of reading done on the airplane. Mrs. Polski said she has a much GREATER understanding as to why her mother moved from the high plains after high school graduation. I am thankful my grandparents moved to warmer clims.....My sons got to play in the snow and my youngest learned what happens when you get your pant legs wet while playing in the snow. He got to experience that tingly feeling in very cold skin as it warms up. My son's also got to meet, at least for a couple of hours, with my brother who lives on the east coast and whom we rarely see.

Its ok visiting and being in the cold for a short time, but I do not think I want to live in it. Ok, so I am spoiled. I'll take 110 degrees over 10 degrees any day! I can handle 110 degrees.

Thanks for reading this.

"DANG IT !"

2009-01-14T19:34:00.001-08:00

Don't you just hate it when you spill a cup of tea ( PG tips, (black), with sweetener and non-fat milk), on your desk ? It makes a helluva mess !

School Assemblies.....Saying NO, but THEN WHAT?????

2009-01-13T19:36:00.000-08:00

We had a school assembly this afternoon. It was something about "motivating" our students. There was some silly stuff, some play acting by the presenters and a message for the students to set high goals for themselves and to just say no to drugs and alcohol.

There wasn't much in there about HOW to set high goals for themselves, or what to do about those demon temptations drugs and alcohol other than refuse them. IMO, this does not help our young people, our students. They have heard about setting high goals for themselves, our homeroom classes often do little units about things needing to be done to be ready for college, about organizing your stuff, study skills, daily reminders that tutoring and computer lab is available after school, etc., etc. They have heard many times, at least in my classes and at some assemblies, that drugs and alcohol are bad for them and can lead them into a bad life.

I learned many years ago, back when I was a science teacher and attended a workshop about how to teach a "family life" unit which was a combo of STD education, family dynamics and human reproduction and development. Anyhow, we heard on a regular basis from Nancy Reagan to "JUST SAY NO." Many, many of our young people cannot just say NO to drugs, alcohol or sex. Why not? A variety of reasons, including peer pressure, the desire for acceptance, to be cool, to just check it out. But, many of our young people, fearing rejection, taunting, loneliness, etc., cannot just say NO because they don't have the life experiences to think through what might happen next. And they don't know what to do after saying NO.

Here are some things I share with my students, to try to give them some strategies for dealing with these situations: Say NO and leave. Yes just leave. Yes, it will be hard to do, you may be teased, taunted and called names. But really, are people who want you to do something you don't want to do, that you know is wrong, that you know might be very harmful and destructive to you, your friends ? I encourage them to have an arrangement with someone older, someone who they can call at any time, to come to them and give them a ride home. It can be a parent, sibling, cousin, aunt, uncle, someone who loves them enough that they will go out late at night or early in the morning or anytime to find you and safely get you home.

Sometimes we listen to some music about alcohol, drugs, crime ( Lynard Skynard- That Smell, Paul Revere and the Raiders- Kicks, Skid Row - 18 to Life, Offspring - Walla Walla.... we play the song and look at the lyrics, then discuss what the song is about.

I share with them one of the harder things about teaching, losing students or former students to drugs, alcohol or some other form of life ending events. I ask them to think about the people they know or are acquainted with who have issues with drugs and or alcohol and how that impacts the people around them. I ask them, Is that what you want in your life? Is that what you want for your children someday ?

Anyhow, I have a peeve about these "motivational" school assemblies. Yes guys and gals who perform these assemblies, you can tell our students don't do drugs, don't abuse alcohol. But you are not giving them strategies that they can use to help them say no. I also have a peeve about these assemblies being held before the whole student body; I really think such messages are more effective before a small, a much smaller group of young people. Young people who are not just a single face in the huge crowd, but young people who are visible in a smaller group setting.

Teachers don't have any say in these events at our school, but I just thought I'd get some of my thoughts down here in this blog.

Thanks for taking time from your busy day to read this rather long blog post I wrote.

Back to my Classroom ---- CHARGE !

2009-01-02T21:23:00.000-08:00

Well, such great news to greet the new year for anyone in education here in the Great People's Democrat Republica de California.....the promise/threat of the state taking an estimated $2.1 Billion Dollars away from the schools here in the middle of the school year. I won't go into it here about my feelings and opinions about our pathetic, entitlement-gorged politicians roosting in Sacramento and what they are doing to this state. So, I'll write about what happens in Polski's class when Christmas Break is over.

When I return to my classroom on Monday, we begin our unit on China. Well, maybe not a big unit; only the standards that are rated as A and B in importance. Plus a little geography. The standards for "Geography of China" are not important, according to the holy test prep-data stuff we were given. But as a professional History/Social Studies teacher, damn it, my kids have to know something about where stuff is in China and how it impacts the people there before they can learn about the "mega-important" stuff like "Being able to describe the reunification of China under the Tang Dynasty." Anyhow, tonight, I was printing out some basic questions about the physical geographic features of China, with the idea of gluing the questions onto index cards, each student getting one card, finding the answer to his/her question, then sharing that data and showing another student the location(s) of their question/answer on a map. Are you confused yet? I have this all in my mind and it will make sense when my seventh graders are doing it one step at a time in class. Anyhow, as I was cutting out questions and preparing to glue them onto index cards, I thought to myself, "this is quite labor intensive.....think, Polski, how else can you do this activity?" And, voila!

History 7, Monday, 05 Jan. 2008:

As students enter class, they will receive a group indicator card. They will sit at a seat in their group indicator cards desk cluster. (group indicator cards can be sets of index-sized cards with five or six of the same picture on them to indicate a group......pictures of various animals, works of art, just a simple number or letter, etc. etc. They are handed out randomly to students as they enter class.)

My seventh graders sit down quietly, quietly get out their daily planners, quietly fill in the HISTORY section of their daily planner, then quietly get out a blank sheet of notebook paper, putting their heading, title and dividing their paper in Cornell Note format. [ Remember, these are seventh graders back at school from two weeks of Christmas Break. They will be tired, numb and kinda in a daze, so lets not subject them to too mentally challenging of a day, what ! ]

There will be an opening activity on the board: "What do you know about the physical geographic features of China ?" They will copy this in the one-third column, then do their best to answer the question in the two-thirds column of their paper. After allotting a few minutes for this, well ask for some random answers from the students, which I'll write on the board. This will be an opportunity to reteach/remind students just what "physical geographic features" are (the mountains, rivers, seas, oceans, lakes, deserts, plateaus, basins, plains, etc.).

Then, to divide up the six questions. Well do question A together, using the map in their textbook that I want them to be familiar with. Then, each group will answer the five remaining questions. The person in each group who has a birthday earliest in the year does question B. The person with the next birthday does question C, etc. after about five minutes of this, then each student will copy the remaining questions and whoever answered the question will share their answer with their group mates AND, show on the map where their physical geographic feature(s) is located.

If there are any individuals or whole groups who don't wish to work well together, who want to sit, talk, mess around, disturb other groups, etc., then each person can answer questions B-F by themselves.

As a class, we will go over the five questions. As homework, students are to create a map showing at least ten physical geographic features of China. Their map should be neat, in color, and geographically accurate. For students wishing to earn additional credits, they can create a map showing 15-20+ physical geographic features, or for mega credit, create a three-dimensional model of the PhyGeog of China.

We'll end our class period with a quick write ("What did you Learn," for those of you who do K-W-L's. Then, for Tuesdays opener, students will partner up with a classmate for a "Think-Write-Pair-Share" activity about the Physical Geography of China. But thats another day, hopefully with students who are now more awake, more cognitively aware of their surroundings, etc. :-)

Ah, as WCNX radio (from Cleveland, Ohio) is now playing on the Internet radio, LET THE GOOD TIMES ROLL! I saw the CARS in concert back in another lifetime......wish I still had the t-shirt from that show, but it was worn to scraps.....

Anyhow, Polski3 says, HAVE A GREAT FIRST DAY BACK IN YOUR CLASSROOM. What are you doing? Please share it with us in the comments section !

Break Time....Season's Greetings !

2008-12-19T21:02:00.000-08:00

You teachers out there KNOW it is time for a break, that you NEED a break, when you get home from work and discover the key to your classroom door does not work to get you into your house.

For my readers, I hope you have a Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, or whatever you celebrate this time of the year!

And I wish for you that 2009 is a New Year filled with Peace, Love, Happiness, Prosperity, and Fine Health for you and your loved ones. And for you teachers, that your sweat, tears, endurance, patience, love and energy that you daily, nay, hourly pour into your students, shows up in their test scores.

Tiered Lessons......

2008-12-10T20:55:00.001-08:00

I will be glad when the Christmas Break gets here. There seem to be lots of little things that are making me.....mad, having less patience, upset, frustrated, ....and a few more things.

Today, in my class full of mostly highly capable, but usually making little or no effort boys, we began like usual; fill in daily planner, then go over vocabulary terms they are expected to learn and how they fit in with the current standard and lesson, then, according to my lesson plan, to a video lecture with an activity sheet to go along with it. As I moved towards starting the video lecture, I heard an unusual number of comments about the video lecture series that I have and use on occasion. So far this year, I have used it once. These were not "positive" comments. So, I turned back to the class and announced that if that was their attitude, we would do something else. So, on to an alternative lesson. I flashed a "sorry about that, but you know how this class is that you are stuck in" look to my handful of good students in that class, and we got on with the alternative lesson.

And, as usual, there were several that continued to be annoying and disruptive to their fellow classmates, so they ended up in timeout. Tomorrow may find this handful of disruptors sent to buddy room and or to the assistant principal with referrals. They have to make an effort to improve their behavior. Several members of this class was kept after school to make up some missing work.

Tiered Lessons are basically as follows: Whatever your lesson is is tier one. Tier two happens when the tier one lesson cannot happen, usually due to student behaviors and a general lack of cooperation. Tier three is strictly "stay in your seats, absolutely no talking, strict enforcement of all rules will apply, copy these questions/vocabulary/identifications, etc., answer them and they are due at end of class." Tier one lessons might have less structure and more opportunity for students to experience their learning. But, when that is not possible, then a lesson with more structure is given. As you can see in the above tier three sample, This is probably the worse type of a lesson to have. In my experience, if a class ever gets to tier three, they usually are much more cooperative and find the value in tier one type lessons.

Tomorrow is a new day.

What do you do with uncooperative classes?

Life in my Classroom.....part XXII

2008-12-04T18:22:00.000-08:00

This may be a bit rambling....please bear with me.

Life has been hectic. I have been dealing with, among a number of other things, I don't quite know how to put it, parring back? To streamline what I am teaching and how I am teaching it.

At my school, we have pretty much been informed by administration that everyone teaching "class Z" should be doing "unit S" at about the same time.....we in my department have encountered that demonic specter of pacing guides, department tests, and that sort of "holding the teachers accountable" type stuff that testing has spewed into many classrooms.

Part of my issue with pacing guides, having to be doing the 'same thing' as my fellow teachers teaching "Class Z", etc., is that I tend to like to delve deeper into certain topics and events in history. As I have been reminded, THIS ("Class Z") is a survey class. Just teach the standards that are rated "highest," as in most likely to appear on the state test. So, why is this a problem for me. Because my students are SO deficient in their knowledge of history and social studies. I try to catch them up, at least a little, in what they did not have the opportunity to be exposed to in their previous two years of school. And in doing so, I get behind.
So I am working hard to get my mind straight to do what I have been directed to do.

I have also been thinking about one of the assignments for my classes. I assign my students "test/quiz corrections homework." This means, when I return a test or quiz to them, they have to correct their errors. Of course, If they earn 100%, they don't have quiz/test corrections homework. There is, of course, a procedure for this; they have to copy the questions they missed and (hopefully), the correct answer into a single statement. If there is a map portion of the quiz/test, they have to draw a copy of the map and correctly label the places they got wrong on the quiz/test. Etc. Etc. They turn in their quiz/test with the corrections homework and earn more points on their quiz/test for correct answers, which can bring up their quiz/test score and their grade in my class.
However, many do not do this assignment. In my grade book, I have a column just to indicate if they turned in their quiz/test corrections homework. Doing so when it is due is worth two points. Turning it in late is one point. Its not much, but.... because many choose not to do these assignments, they end up with a zero score for these assignments. It is only one or two points, but it counts for "homework not turned in" in the grade tallies and report card comments.

My recent thoughts are, should I continue to record if they turned it in or not? One part of me says, drop it. If the student does not want to do their quiz/test corrections homework, they keep whatever grade they earned on the quiz/test and it doesn't add to their "homework not turned in" grade tally. Another part of me says, IF you assign something like this, it counts. If they don't do the work, don't make the effort, they should be docked for it. What do you think ?

Over the past few years, I have been getting less and less school materials from the school district. Maybe this is a way to stretch your paper supplies. Gently used school paper, if clean on one side, can be used again. I have taken to using "recycled" papers to run off some quizzes, packet table of content sheets, class sets of notes, and other things for my classes. Papers that I "recycle" include memos from the office that don't contain student data, old school worksheets, etc. Last summer, in following the lovely Mrs. Polski's directive to "at least go through a FEW of those boxes of "school stuff" stacked up in the Polski garage, I ended up with almost a case of used-on-one-side-only old "Science, US History and assignments for now obsolete textbooks" papers. My students don't seem to mind getting something on "recycled" paper, in fact, some almost crow if they have something they perceive as interesting on the back (used) side of their papers. Once in awhile, those "with their heads in the clouds" or suffering from that middle level syndrome of not paying any attention whatsoever, will later ask me "are we supposed to do this?" and show me the back (used) side of their paper.

[ Here is a brief history note: because there was a shortage of paper in some of the Baltic countries following WW I, one of those nations, prior to being gobbled up by the Soviet Red Machine, used old German Army maps to print some of their postage stamps on the unused side of the map papers. You can find these at times, on ebay and I am sure some other websites. ]

Thanks for bearing with me on this post. I welcome your comments and ideas!

What's Missing......

2008-11-12T20:39:00.000-08:00

I was walking tonight, hand in hand with the lovely Mrs. Polski3, and thinking. I was thinking about my lesson plans this week. And recalling what I used to teach.

As you teachers out there know, NCLB with its testing mandates, has led those of us in the classroom to more rigid, less flexible mode of teaching. Standards must be taught. We are told to learn and chant the mantra, "DDDDOOOOOMMMMM IF it is not in the standards, Don't teach it" OOOOHHHHMMMM." Meet with your departments, go over the standards. Here is a standards guide with each standard rated by importance on the State Test. The standards rated A are most important. Du Wilst gecover dieses Standards!!!!! B rated standards ist nichts so important. If it is a C rating, forget it. Don't teach that standard.

There is no real rhyme or reason for some standards being rated A or B or C.....hey, if it is in the standard, shouldn't it be taught? For example, in looking at the ratings in Grade 7 World History, we find rated A is a bit about geography of northern Africa. A lower rating goes for the geography of Europe. Forget the geography of China. Or the Americas.

That aside, there is so much more missing.....book reports, country reports, Illustrated Geography Vocabulary Dictionaries, current events activities, building models, playing games, in class, group projects, and anything related to doing research in the library.....It seems that there was so much more that I used to do with my students prior to the push for covering all the "A and B" rated standards. I guess it means survey, not teaching anything in depth. Like so much of society and those things that fleeting impact our students lives, be shallow. Rush through the standards, be sure to cover all the A and B rated standards. Because those must be the ones the kids will be tested on. Fun? We are in school to learn the A and B rated standards, not to have F U N !!!!

I know this is kind of a ramble. I hope you get the gist of what I am trying to say. I hope you can comment. OH, other than such depressing thought, it was nice to walk with my wife, hold hands and talk about stuff.

Thanks for reading my blog !
And it has taken

Corrupt Union Leadership ?

2008-11-11T14:46:00.000-08:00

In the just concluded elections, there were several seats up for grabs on our local high school board. One candidate was a teacher from the local elementary school district. The high school teachers association endorsed him. BUT, they did not contact the elementary school associations who have many, many members living within the high school district, asking for their support for this candidate. Nor did this candidate even ask teachers in his own district to support him at the ballot box. OR, perhaps I just didn't get the message. Maybe he did ask for support, but the local leaders failed to communicate with their membership. Maybe the high school teachers association leaders failed to ask any of the other locals for their support.

This candidate is also a negotiator for the local elementary school district. His position is appointed. The teachers of the local elementary school association have no say in who negotiates on their behalf. Leadership NEVER asks for our opinion, ideas or suggestions. And if we question their actions at a rare general meeting, we are told, "Trust your negotiators", or "You teachers at (school name) are always causing trouble," or their favorite one, "We already decided."

Yet, these union leaders spend beaucoup dues money attending "Leadership" conferences in Monterrey, California, Palm Springs, Las Vegas, and sometimes, in Hawaii. You'd think "COMMUNICATIONS WITH MEMBERS" would be something to learn about at these expensive conferences. Maybe I expect too much from these local leaders.

Yes, I know I could become an agency fee payer. Yes I know I could run for a local leadership position. But, sadly, I also know that their election process is corrupt. I have, several times, observed "ballot counts." I have seen every ballot from a school marked with the same write-in candidate; every ballot with the same name, written in the same manner using the same writing instrument. In the last election, the chosen leadership candidate did not get enough votes to clearly win the election, so the leadership junta declared the election invalid and it was held again, this time with the proper candidate winning the election. They refuse to provide safe, tamper-proof ballot boxes or an organized system of voting. Yes, we have by-laws. They only follow the by-laws they want to follow. The local uniserve dick is in league with them, going so far as to help them change the by-laws to make it harder for members to hold leaders accountable or have secure, non-corrupt elections. CTA leadership made it very clear that they don't give a shit about any of this because several members contacted them and never even received a reply from CTA.

IS this a small slice of what America has become ?

GO VOTE !

2008-11-03T19:46:00.000-08:00

I am not going to suggest to you how you should vote tomorrow. Nor am I going to say anything here about how I might be voting tomorrow. All I am going to say, is JUST GO VOTE. Enjoy that time of going to your neighborhood polling place, signing in, getting your ballots, going to the little wobbly booth, marking your choices, turning in your ballots and proudly wearing your little "I VOTED" sticker. You know, some folks out there on other parts of this planet do not get to do such things. Relish this opportunity. Regardless of the outcome, you can still proudly say, "I participated, I voted."

Memorial Service

2008-11-01T20:16:00.000-07:00

Someone I have known for quite a few years recently died. Mr. P was ready to go; he was very ill with cancer, his bad leg bothered and pained him most of the time and he dearly missed his wife of over 50 years. At his memorial service today, his nephew encouraged us to remember our encounters with him, not to morn his passing, but to celebrate his life. And, to share it with someone. So, I am sharing it with you, my readers.

I am not good at writing about stuff like this. Lots of thoughts and memories of my brief associations with Mr.P and his family are rattling around in my head, but anyhow, here goes.

This man, Mr. P., was a teacher. I was never in his classroom, but I was a student of his. He was principal of the elementary school I attended. We thought it was kinda cool, that he only had one leg. He'd lost a leg in a motorcycle accident and, in the silver lining of losing his leg, met his wife, one of his nurses. Anyhow, during his tenure at Lesser Known Spanish Explorer Elem. School, when I was in grades 2-3-4, we knew what was allowed and what was not allowed at Mr. P's school. He was what I guess you could call an old fashion disciplinarian. I do not ever recall getting sent to his office for anything while he was principal. He'd talk to you like the father that he also was, and if you needed something else to reinforce the lesson, he provided a swat or two. And everyone knew this. It was like having your Dad running the school. He set the boundaries and expectations for behavior and that is what the vast majority of us followed. We learned there were boundaries, behavioral expectations and consequences for going over the line. When I entered Grade 5, we had a new principal, a new principal with, shall we say, newer ideas for dealing with misbehaving children. And we misbehaved. The principal saw me on a regular basis for one thing or another. My name was known by the school secretary. But the lectures, if you want to call them that, and punishments she dealt out were not much to motivate us to not stay out of mischief. Oh, a swat from Mr. P., no one wanted that. But write a note home to a parent about why you were sent to the office? No big deal.

I learned another lesson from Mr. P a few years later. Starting my senior year of high school, I got a job at a local coffee shop. Mr. P often came in for coffee during the afternoon after his administrative school day ended. Sometimes he came in with a fellow principal, but more often than not, he came in with Mrs. P. They almost always sat at the counter, she had hot tea and he had coffee. I learned about iced coffee from him. Oh, but I also learned that it is nice for a married couple to see each other sometime during the day, quietly talk or just sit quietly and share companionship while having an afternoon cup of tea or coffee.

He also told me, after I'd become an adult ( outta college and starting my teaching career), that it was ok to call him by his first name. You teachers out there know that this can be awkward at first, calling an adult who was one of your teachers or administrators by their first name. But Mr.P, like most of them, TOLD me to call them by their first name.

Another lesson I learned was to be involved. Mr. P. was involved in several service clubs and with his church. He and Mrs. P rarely missed church, sang in the choir and were one of those backbones of any church who quietly, without fuss or accolades often took care of things that needed doing.

We all need role models in our lives. Mr. P was a role model for me. I am thankful that Mr. P and so many others care enough about me and the others around them to be such role models. Where would we be without them ?

The P's believed in heaven. I am sure they are now up there, spending more time with each other. RIP Mr. P.

Classroom Hazards

2008-10-15T16:12:00.000-07:00

Today I encountered a noxious odor in my classroom. It wasn't there until period 4, when, while returning graded student papers, I was assaulted by the reek of a seventh grade boy who doused himself in cologne. I sent him to the office and away from my allergies.

Pre-Testing

2008-10-13T18:49:00.000-07:00

Do you give your students a "Pre-test?" I usually give my students a pre-test prior to starting a new section or unit. Why? So that I have something to provide an indicator that they may have learned something. It helps introduce them to the next section or unit. It can give them a sense that they made academic progress.

However, in the sense of pre-testing for students to "test out" of having to do a unit and then be offered a more individualized, challenging course of study on that section or unit, this has never happened to me since I have been giving pre-tests.

What do you think? Is giving pre-tests a positive thing or a waste of time? Do they really matter when the vast majority of your students have never formally learned or been exposed to history ? Please share your opinions and thoughts on this subject.

Thanks for reading my blog. I look forward to this discussion.

Teacher Behavior

2008-10-12T15:35:00.001-07:00

Teachers in the news seem to be like Catholic priests; usually it is one of the tiny minority of them who do some evil that makes the news. I have been reading over the past few months of a charter school in suburban San Diego, Helix High School, had a series of "teachers behaving badly" incidents. In the past two years, four teachers at Helix high school have been caught and convicted of having improper sexual relations with students. Not that it matters, but one of these teachers taught Business, one taught Geography and two were Music teachers.

I don't quite know how or why a teacher can get themselves into sexual trouble with a minor at their school. Maybe they try to be too much of a buddy with their students? I don't know. I was always taught that there is no room for such behavior in a "teacher - student" relationship at any level of education, including college/university. Yes, I know it has happened. And it usually makes the news and casts a negative eye towards ALL teachers.

Anyhow, now it seems that Helix High School teachers will have a formal policy instructing teachers how to behave with students. It included, "kissing a student, intentionally being alone with a student away from the school or making sexually inappropriate comments." It cautions teachers regarding "giving a student a ride to or from school or school activities without parental permission, excessive attention to a particular student and making remarks about physical attributes."

Teachers can, "give students praise without touching them." Teachers are asked to think, "Are your actions worth your job and career?"

On the occasions when I have had student teachers, I have repeatedly cautioned them about what is considered proper and improper behavior around students. I don't know how much of this they are told about or discuss in education classes at their university. But, as in any profession in which we deal with people, there are expected norms for behavior and relationships. Teachers are under these rules too.

Anyhow, you teachers out there, BEHAVE yourself ! I am sure that this is NOT a problem for any teacher reading this blog.

Thanks for reading this blog. Comments are welcome.

Why Homeschool ?

2008-10-05T14:15:00.001-07:00

There was a letter to the editor in this mornings newspaper, regarding tax money following students regardless of where they attend school. This got me to thinking about homeschooling.

Other than the "keeping my Christian children away from the heathens" reason for some parents to homeschool their children, why else might parents choose to homeschool their child(ren)?

Here is what I came up with:

Homeschool students are usually in a bully-free, career disruptor-free learning environment.

Homeschool students can receive much more individual attention.

Homeschool students can go as fast or slow as they need to master their academic material; they are not hamstrung by their teacher being forces to teach to the "lowest" level students in a typical public school classroom

Homeschool parents/teachers have much more academic freedom than public school teachers.

Homeschool students can have many, many more enrichment opportunities, going on field trips to museums, historical sites, visiting and going outdoors to study nearby ecosystems.....

Homeschool students usually receive more character and morals education

Homeschool students usually have the opportunity for more in-depth explorations of topics of interests.

Homeschool students do not suffer from the curruiculum whims of district office personnel.

Homeschool students do get socialization opportunities as, from what I know about homeschooling, most get together with other students being homeschooled for field trips, musical events, etc. And, most are active in non-academic youth activities.

This being said, no, my son's are not homeschooled. I sometimes wish they were. I know they are not getting all they could be getting from their public school experiences because of all the crap the "top end" students have to deal with at public school.My son's are not getting a very rounded education in our local elementry schools; missing is music, art, P.E., adequate science programs and history/social studies. Just the other day, one of my sons was leaving school and discovered his bicycle tires flattened and his seat vandalized. I don't blame the parents who chose homeschooling for their children.

Thanks for reading this. Feel free to leave a comment to argue with my points, support them or add to this discussion.

It helps a tiny bit....$19.65

2008-10-04T16:40:00.000-07:00

Several years ago, the California Teachers Association Peoples Polibureau forced upon its members a $60.00 per year additional fee to feed the coffers of CTA's political spending. For those of you who are not aware of it, CTA does not allow its members to vote for its state officers. Or to have a say in who runs the regional centers or uniserve offices. Or to protest their dues increases. [ Yes, Darren, I know I can quit the Union and become an agency fee payer. I am still thinking about it. Perhaps I can cast more worthy dissent if I am still a member ? ]

Anyhow, Maybe, just maybe, something may be changing? This year, from the fragments of information I have heard regarding CTA and its huge deductions from its captives, we are not supposed to be paying out that $60.00 annual fee anymore. But this was not reflected in their deductions from my paycheck. I have to find out more about that. ANYHOW.....their summer peoples representative rubber stamp assembly did imposed a $20.00 fee to feed the coffers of their political spending, BUT, if any member wants to jump through the hoops, they can get $19.65 refunded. ( I considered the cost of my envelope and stamp to send for my refund ). I got my check today. Yeah.

Thanks for reading this.

Excited

2008-09-26T20:48:00.001-07:00

Ok, Ok, I know my prior blog was one of my usual rants. But, here is something different.....something positive.

I don't know exactly how, in my period six class today, we got from discussing the Contributions of Rome, Latin Language, to buying stuff in Ancient Rome, but we did. Class was almost over, so I went to my desk for a small envelope I brought from home, dumped the contents out of it into my hand, walked over to one of my students and asked her to open her hand. She held out her hand and I placed seven Roman coins in her hand. I told her that in her hand, were coins that I was sure some girl in the Roman Empire once held and used to go shopping.....at least 1500 years ago. She got an amazed look on her face and I about had a riot on my hands as students literally ran from their desks to take a look at these simple bronze and silver Roman coins.

I quickly calmed them down and assured them that they would all get to see these coins next week. Something to look forward to. History can be so cool, )even if it is not in the standards) !

History Deficient

2008-09-26T17:07:00.000-07:00

In a way, what I am now doing is killing me. Not in a physical sense of dying, but in a......some other way in which that part of you tries to.....I don't quite know the words. But, it is not "teaching to the standards" that is getting to me. Its dealing with, I don't know quite how to phrase it, "everything they just don't know" but need to have to fully grasp of the history I am teaching them.

For example, we are teaching about Rome. But, we start at the beginning. We start where our "state standard" begins, with the Decline and Fall, then go on to the Contributions of Rome, then end with a tiny bit of the 1000 year history of the Byzantine Empire. BUT, they don't know about Romulus and Remus. Or the Aeneid. Or the twelve tables of Roman Law. Some don't even know where "Italy" is located. Or the bodies of water surrounding the Italian Peninsula. Or what a peninsula is. Or even that Europe is one of the continents. Some have heard of someone called "Hannibal," but they think he is some psycho murder with the surname of Lecter. Gaul? Punic Wars? Nope, they've never heard of these.

We have been told to just try to teach OUR grade levels standards. But, without some knowledge of past civilizations and empires, dealing with the Decline and Fall of Rome is more difficult, less relevant, less interesting to them.

Two years ago, before the "teach to the standards of your grade level" frenzy hit us grade seven history teachers, I spent about nine to ten weeks teaching, well, not really teaching in depth, but surveying Ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, Ancient Greece, Early Rome and Ancient China. In short, a very modified version of the Grade Six State of California Social Studies Standards. And, the results showed up in our State Standards Tests from last Spring. We were told by administration that our Eighth Graders scored "the highest" on the material related to the Grade 6 and 7 Standards. Cool. It paid off, so to speak.

The result of this, however, has been a mandate to our Grade 8 History teachers, to be sure their students are exposed to the Grades Six and Seven History Standards materials, AND their Grade 8 History Standards. The Grade 8 History teachers already gripe and bemoan the amount of standards materials they are given to teach; now, they have at least six weeks less time to teach that Grade 8 material because they must "expose" their students to the History of the World from Early Man to about 1700.

There are several ways to remedy this problem.....beginning with the California State Social Studies Standards themselves. I cannot begin to go into it here, but lets just say, they badly need work to create a quality survey of World and US History and Geography for our children. There are parts that need to be tossed from it ( I offer, as a sample, Standard 7-5-4: "Trace the development of distinctive forms of Japanese Buddhism." Wouldn't it be enough for students to have an elementary grasp of what Buddhism is ? ) And the geography.....Our world is too small for our children, the future leaders of this planet, not to know something about what is on it and where things are. At least here in California, when the current incarnation of the State Social Studies Standards were first concocted, they pretty much threw out Geography. High Schools used to have a required Grade 9 Geography class. AFAIK, most no longer have such a class; there is no required Grade 9 Social Studies class.

Another remedy could be that the teachers in Grades Five and Six taught the Social Studies Standards for Grades Five and Six. I cannot say what happens in other school districts, but in the district I teach in, Social Studies is pretty much ignored by District Officialdom as being necessary.....because in Grades Five and Six, students are not tested in Social Studies. And, increasingly, our teachers in Grades K-6 are told what to teach, when to teach it, how to teach it and are closely spied upon, Oops, I mean helped by an army of "resource teachers, reading coaches and curriculum specialists". So, I cannot really blame them for not teaching their students early US history or Ancient World History. They are not given the opportunity to do so.

What is it like with you ? How unprepared for History/Social Studies are your students ? Or, are they prepared when they get to you? If so, what does your district do ?

I hear rumors that California is planning to revise their Social Studies Standards. Anyone our here on the Left Coast heard about such a thing ? I might like to be invited to that party.

Have a happy weekend. I have a ton of 4x, DBQ and Graphic Organizer papers to grade.

Thanks for reading all this. I hope it makes you think and write a comment.

Does your school have this?

2008-09-15T20:53:00.000-07:00

Does your school suffer from NVA ? Oh, what is "NVA," you may ask ? "NVA" stands for "No visible Administrators". It is most evident when there are large numbers of students on campus, especially in the mornings before the first bell of the school day, during passing periods, during lunch and at dismissal. I really hope that something major does not happen with so many ( about 800 ) seventh and eighth grade students roaming about school, relatively unsupervised.

Oh, there are times when NVA is ok. Like when teachers in their classrooms may be occasionally deviating from the "IF IT'S NOT IN THE STANDARDS, IT DOES NOT GET TAUGHT" AllMightyTesting doctrine. Or in the lunch room when discussion, shall we say, may not be all that friendly to administration or certain students, parents, board members, district office personnel, governors, legislators, et. al.

Thanks for reading this blog post. Please share your thoughts with us.

Back to Skool Nite

2008-09-14T19:22:00.000-07:00

Our annual "Back to School Night" is soon to be here. As usual, we are being allotted just a few minutes for each of our classes. And, as usual, I will try to tell parents about our curriculum, how it is "test driven," how their child is graded (assessed) in my classroom, and how they can help their child succeed in my classroom. I plan to have the school website ( which has not been updated for this year, but my email hasn't changed ) posted so parents can email me with questions or concerns.

School procedures, routines and rules are all supposed to be discussed when we meet parents for period 1 home room.

Anything else I should tell parents ?

What do you do during your open house / back to school night ?

Thou shall meet thy.......PLC's

2008-09-05T21:09:00.000-07:00

Of the eight and one-half days of school we have had with the kids, we have had at least five hours of required meetings. IMO, the vast majority of what was "covered" at these meetings was, shall we say, of little value to what I do in my classroom. Anyone else experiencing this ?

Anyone experiencing "Professional Learning Communities" at the junior high or above level, that is of benefit to your teaching ?

Vocabulary Lesson

2008-09-01T15:42:00.000-07:00

Happy Labor Day to all you hard working, always working teachers out there ! So far, Polski3 has taken this "no-students today" opportunity to do some lesson planning. Among other things, I developed my next list of "Social Studies Vocabulary" that my students need to learn, a list of important, key vocabulary terms for social studies. In the past, I would have put this list up on the board and instructed students to "define each one of these terms, know how to spell it and use it in its proper context". However, I now do something a bit different that I will now share with you.

I put the list up on the board and ask students to copy it on the first column of a three column sheet of paper. The paper is folded in half, vertically, then a second vertical fold is made so that the paper has three columns; one-half the page wide and two columns that are each one-fourth the page wide. Each column can be labeled "Vocabulary", "KNOW" and "NEED TO LEARN". Students then copy the vocabulary terms in the 'half page column. Then, they carefully read each term and decide if they already know the term, know how to spell it and use it in its proper context. If they know this, they can simply check off the first 'one-fourth' of the page wide column. This column is for those terms they KNOW. If they don't know the word, are not sure of its spelling or how to use it in the proper context, they check off the second "one-fourth' page column. This gives students an opportunity to take responsibility for learning their important social studies vocabulary terms. They are not just being assigned to define and learn spelling and context for each term, no, they decide which ones they know and which ones they need to learn. I believe this activity is called a Vocabulary Survey. There are other versions of this out there, including one that has a fourth column for students to check off after they believe they have mastered the vocabulary term. But for my seventh graders, I try to keep it simply. Later, we'll do some review activity using the terms and definitions and students having to match them up and read them to their classmates.

I also made up an assessment activity (aka: Quiz) for one of the first standards I am to teach this fall. I am breaking up the standards into what I hope are small, easier to learn chunks. For example, this section is only for the part of the California Soc. St. Standard for the Reasons for the Decline (Fall) of Rome. The standard also includes Contributions of Rome, but to do all of that together, I believe, would be overwhelming to many of my "never been exposed to history" students. So, break it up into smaller bits.

I thank you for reading this blog. Comments are welcome and appreciated.
Have a Great Week out there in Teacherlandia !

Back in the Saddle, Again

2008-08-28T20:20:00.000-07:00

Well, to butcher one of the world's better known authors, "It was the best of Summers, it was the worst of Summers." Anyhow, I guess it is about time to let my remaining one or two blog surfers know that Polski3 is still around.

Best of Summer....spent alot of time with my wife and boys. Took my boys to several baseball games, which we all enjoy. Spent a day at a beach and did not get sunburned.....well ok, maybe just a tad of red showing up on my neck. Played a few games of chess and maj jong on this computer, attended a "teaching US History" Summer Institute and did not gain any weight. Didn't lose any either, just wasn't too motivated to go work out when it was 110 degrees outside.

On the other hand, this wouldn't be my normal blog unless I complained about something......had to go to my eye doctor to get new reading glasses. Bleech. I didn't read much this summer, because of more difficulty in reading. I hate that and it is depressing. My eye doctor said, however, that my need for new reading glasses to go with my heavy prescription contact lenses, was not a problem related to my diabetes; just "you have crappy eyes and getting older does not help them". I usually go through 7 - 10 books during my summer time off from teaching, but this past summer, I think I only read 3-5 books....but I found some more to add to my pile of books waiting to be read....!

Also not happy with rising price of everything. That kept us fairly close to home and nixed a planned trip to ancestral lands in the mid west. Not that I enjoy the heat and humidity of the Ozarks in summer, but I wanted to see my Mom and some 'getting older' kin. But gas and food and motels are just too expensive to be making long trips. It is no comfort to me that many also suffered with this. Damn government, big business, school boards who will not negotiate and offer at least cola to their teachers salaries. Guess I just need to learn to adjust better. BLEECH!

Oldest son is now taking Algebra II, at local high school, as an 8th grader. It took until the last friday prior to the start of the h.s. to get this done. The h.s. really did not want "junior high" students taking advanced math classes on their campus. THEN, and it is fortunate my cooler headed, less combative, threatening, less likely 'to-shoot-off-her-mouth-and-make-the-situation-worse' wife delt with much of this. My son and the other 8th grade student show up to class that Monday morning. The teacher had not been told that two eighth graders were enrolled in her Algebra II class ! I cannot even type here what I was thinking when I heard about this later that day.....god knows what my BP was at that moment.....anyhow, MEGA KUDOS to this h.s. Algebra II teacher.....she simply told the boys to sit down and do what the class was doing. Later, since they could not check out a book without a H.S. ID card or a H.S. schedule, she checked out two textbooks and gave them to the boys to use. She handled this with flying colors. I cannot understand this lack of support from the (blank, blank, BLANKITY, BLANK) H.S. District Administration. If I was Educational Czar of this People's Democrat Republica de California, I'd yank their administrative credentials for such gross incompetence and send them back to the classroom to teach some freshman required class. OH, and these boys will not receive high school credit for taking Algebra II because they are not "officially" enrolled at the high school. I heard they can take a test later and get credit when they actually enroll in h.s. We'll deal with this later.

In other news, yes, my school year began too. Usual BUSY days trying to teach incoming 7th graders procedures and other stuff they have never experienced. Our school numbers are down; our area has been hit hard by the housing foreclosures and we lost a few students to a neighboring district that opened a new school facility. I don't know exactly what level of school they have; they feature grades 4 - 8. Is that a Middle School ? But, as for life in my classroom, things are a bit different.
We (the history department, has pretty much been told to just teach the standards. IF it isn't in the standards, forget it. This is hard for me as my students arrive with so little skill or knowledge in social studies/history. Out 8th Grade US History teachers have been, shall we say, informed, that they must teach their 8th Grade US History standards, AND get in a quality review of the Grade 6 and 7 World History Standards. Why ? Because our students tested pretty poorly in the State History 8 Assessments. Yes, we showed growth, but not like our Science department who, we were told, spent lots of time meeting with each other and ONLY teaching the standards they decided were the most important for student success on the State Science Assessments.

I am tired and need to end here for now. Thanks for reading this blog. I welcome your comments.

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

2008-06-10T15:59:00.000-07:00

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......

2008-05-20T16:59:00.000-07:00

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

2008-05-17T16:58:00.000-07:00

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

2008-05-17T16:56:00.000-07:00

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

2008-05-17T16:26:00.000-07:00

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

2008-05-10T11:59:00.001-07:00

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

2008-05-10T11:57:00.000-07:00

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....

2008-05-08T21:12:00.000-07:00

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....

2008-05-06T20:52:00.000-07:00

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

2008-05-04T12:16:00.000-07:00

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

2008-04-27T19:40:00.000-07:00

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?

2008-04-19T12:09:00.001-07:00

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 ?

2008-04-13T15:31:00.000-07:00

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

2008-04-13T15:21:00.000-07:00

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 ?

2008-04-02T20:34:00.000-07:00

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

2008-03-27T17:09:00.001-07:00

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 ?

2008-03-19T20:24:00.000-07:00

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