Recant the recant

Well, we knew it was too good to be true.

On Friday night we drove to GF. Prior to graduation we stopped there to purchase a dog kennel. Though we are Lowe's diehards through and through, we couldn't find one there that we liked, so we went to Menards. They had a nice pannel style dog kennel. The only catch was that the black pannel kennel was roughly $90 per pannel whereas the plain style was only $50. Since we needed a total of eight pannels, our decision was easy.

So we marched up to the counter, but we were informed that they didn't have any of the pannels in stock. They had to order them and they'd give us a call when they were in.

So they gave us our little receipt and we were on our way back home.

After graduation, we called Menards, just to check. Unfortunately, they had neither a record of us nor our order. Moreover, the worker said - upon checking into things - that they actually had several pannels in stock.

So on Friday we were thinking of heading up to GF to pick up the kennel pannels and do some other shopping. We called Menards yet again, just to double check.

"We have 13 pannels in stock," the worker said. And away we went.

Unfortunately, as I pulled Casey's pickup around to the back to pick up the pannels, they screwed up. They had ten gates and three pannels. That was their total. It would have been nice had they informed us of that before we filled Casey's truck full of a $2.50 gallon gas and drove 50 miles (one way).

If I would have been thinking, I would have just loaded up the more expensive black pannels and been on my way (of course, they had a plethora of those in stock). The security guy would never have caught it.

However, we complained and the worker said he would personally look into it, but we're stuck waiting for the order to come in.

Now Kristie has worked in customer service long enough to know that it would have done no good to take our frustration out on the service workers for the mistake was not their fault.

So much for customer service!

How do you know it's a weekend?

Because it's raining.

In order to beat the thunderstorm forecast for Sunday, Kristie and I logged about a nine hour workday yesterday trying to help keep our basement dry.

This meant tearing up all the shrubbery the previous owners had planted on the east side of our house. The previous owners planted two small shrubs to hide the central air condition that sits outside. However, those shrubs quickly grew into monstrosities that crowded the central air unit and whose roots played havoc with our foundation. The previous owners also had an outdoor sump pump installed to keep water out of the basement.

This was futile because water still gets in. So Kristie and I did some inspecting a few days ago and found out a major wash out around the sump pump. We've noticed all the fine sand the sump pump has been spitting out with excess water over the past few months.

Apparently, the sand must get pumped out and the dirt from around our foundation must get sucked in to fill the void, thus the huge washout.

So we headed out to Dad's to get a pick up full of dirt to pack in around the sump pump.

All in all, not a bad day's work. The only downer was the fact that it was a beautiful Saturday.

However, the highlight of the day came when I was able to get a good zinger in on Kristie. She was shoveling the dirt from the pick up into a wheelbarrow while I was standing next to the sump pump packing the dirt in next to our foundation.

I finished packing and asked Kristie, "Is it coming tonight?"

"What?" she asked from the pickup bed.

"Is it coming tonight?"

Then I heard a chuckle from next door where our neighbor, Nancy, was out doing some of her own yard work.

Then the wisecrack dawned on Kristie.

"Is the load of dirt coming tonight?" I finished.

I don't get those type of zingers in very often, so I have to gloat when I can!

Blogging - The New Conversation

A great slide show on the potential - and power - of blogging.

I'm going to use either google apps or the new blogging feature on iLife '09 to set up blogs and websites for my College Comp II students to experiment with hypertext writing, which is rapidly becoming (as the presenter of this slide show states) the most important kind of writing.

You knew it would come to this . . .

I hate to admit it, but I knew this would happen . . .

http://omg.yahoo.com/news/octo-mom-signs-reality-tv-deal/23179?nc

"Star in her own reality show." How odd is that?

The problem is, too many people live their lives as if their lives are reality TV shows and EVERYONE else is just dying to tune in and hang on every little insignificant thing they do or think.

Creativity

I've subscribed to the Moving at the Speed of Creativity podcast. The link to it is below.



Check out podcast #304 for some great ideas in how to use technology in the classroom. It is inspiring to see (or hear, I guess) what others are doing in their classrooms. It makes me feel like I've been standing still in my classroom for the past decade or so.

Recant the Rant

Just as I go off on terrible customer service, Kristie, Kenzie, and I went to McDonald's in TR and the service was superb.  They loved Kenzie and were efficient and caring. Even the DirecTV worker was not as terrible as the previous one.  While he did move the dish to the garage, he still insisted on not burying the cable.  This seemed odd to me.  For it's not like when I signed up for DirecTV they just dropped the dish in my back yard and said, "There ya go!" I asked him how deep I should bury the cable.  The worker just said, "Just step on the shovel, lift up, and drop the cable in.  That's what we do when we bury the cable." It didn't come to me later until I began thinking, so if you have buried cables in the past, why can't you bury this one?  Of course, this didn't come to me until I signed off on the work order and talked to DirecTV directly (they insisted that the worker hand me his cell phone so I could state that everything was working properly.  Now if that would have just happened in the first place).  So I'll be burying some cable this weekend. I have the feeling that it was because he didn't show up in the DirecTV van.  He had a little hatch-back thing instead.  Plus, he didn't look too thrilled at doing any more work than humanly possible.  Burying 30 feet of cable was not his idea of fun, I guess. At least our reception is perfect!

The Village

I like to show this in conjunction with The Crucible (it looks at the theme of blindly following along), "Young Goodman Brown" (I thought of Hawthorne's works as I was watching it), or Fahrenheit 451 (it exams the question, what is the cost of maintaining a 'utopia' and censoring people?). When Kristie and I originally saw it in theaters, I thought it was brilliant.  Probably Shyamalan's best work since The Sixth Sense, but there was a group of kids behind us who hated it.  Part of it was that they didn't understand it (probably texting while it was going on and missed the subtle clues) and part of it was that it was mistakenly marketed as a horror film, which it certainly is not. I have been pleasantly surprised these last few days how riveted the kids have been by the movie. Now, if we can just have a good talk about the larger ideas inherent in the film.

Rant Time

What has happened to customer service? Kristie just called and said that she spoke with a young kid for DirecTV.  Apparently, he has little to do – even though the customer service call is schedule for 4-8, so he was hoping to start early on moving the dish. However, he was a jerk to Kristie on the phone.  He insisted that we would have to pay $50 for the dish to be moved.  Apparently, we have waited too long to complain about the reception or some such thing.  He began grilling Kristie about the details of moving the dish, details which Kristie knows nothing about. "Well, I'd like to know if I have to move the dish 300 yards.  There would be a $50 fee for that," the kid said. Yeah.  We're going to have the dish moved the length of a football field!  Give me a break. I promptly called DirecTV to both inquire about the mythical $50 fee and to complain yet again about our service.  As I thought, there is no fee and the complaint has been noted. But the problem is that customer service is a thing of that past. Or at least that's how it seems to me. We were talking about this very same thing at lunch today when the local Dairy Queen refused to open early – though they have done for years on the last day of school – so early classes can go there for the final day of class.  Some were frustrated with the lack of customer service from the DQ.  One teacher even talked directly to the owner, who was still unwilling to open – and turn about dozens (if not more) of customers.  Finally, one of our gym teachers was able to convince the owner to open up. That brought on the discussion of the mostly teen run Pizza Hut and how lousy that service has become. Listening to all of this, I couldn't help but think of the Milenials piece from 60 Minutes I embedded on here.   Today's young workers (and realize I'm one of those who is always weary of saying "oh our society is going to hell in a hand basket" because I KNOW the older generation ALWAYS thinks this about the following generation, so I know I'm going against my beliefs here.  But I also realize that the older generation has ALWAYS complained about customer service of the younger generation) simply have too many jobs available.  The DirecTV kid could quit and find a job at McDonalds, Hugo's, Target, Kmart, Dairy Queen, or any other low level job. They feel little or no loyalty.  Plus, they are the center of their solar systems, not their jobs or their parents or anyone else.  Their interests come first.  That's why they text while they work, call in sick on their birthdays, assume that their jobs will adjust to their lives and needs. Of course that's a myth.  But that is the type of young person we have created. Doubt it? Just come here and see how many parents will either call or text their kids right during school!  I recall seeing one kid some years ago talking on his cell phone.  I walked over to him.  He handed it to me and said, "It's my dad."  I grabbed the phone and shut it off. Just come here and see how many parents excuse unexcused absences.  Or worse, think allowing their kids to leave early for work, shopping, or tanning appointments is a perfectly legit reason. Just come here and see how many allow their kids to sleep in when they get home late from a concert or athletic event. Just come here and see how little money a student appears to have; yet they have their iPod and cell phone in constant contact. Just come to the middle and elementary schools where you will see parents drop their kids off late despite the fact that the parent is late for work. Yes, we have created them.  Now, how can we fix them?

The Big Move

On Sunday, Casey was all loaded up and ready to move out. We followed he and Jake as they drove Casey's truck full of stuff and pulled a trailer, also loaded with stuff.



While it was a bit nerve wracking watching Casey weave in and out of traffic (and in and out of his lanes!) pulling that trailer at 75 miles an hour, we made it safely to Burnsville. Casey's apartment complex is called The Woods. Talk about irony. He moves all the way to the cities to just live in the woods.

Of course, he has to live on the third floor! Luckily we had Jake and his family (who showed up minutes after we did with their own trailer full of stuff!) there too to help us move in all of their stuff.

Their place is about 15 minutes from the Mall of America and only a few seconds from another large mall and shopping center. Man, what I wouldn't have given to live just a few minutes from the Mall of America!

I think Casey is finally in his element.

But it was not easy on his poor little sister.

He she is as we pulled away from his apartment complex.



Now, that is love.

So much for great ideas

KoKo's Girlscout troop apparently has around $1,000 in their account. They usually do some fun activity each summer with their money.

Well, this year Kristie thought it would be worthwhile, given the economic downturn, if the troop donated the money to a local food shelf. Think of all the food that money could buy for needy families in our area.

She had it all planned out.


The girls could devise a list of food, non-perishable and other items, that would benefit those in need the most. They could devise shopping lists and itemize what they needed. Talk about real life skills.

Next, the girls would go to the local grocery store and learn about using coupons and shopping on their own and getting the most for their money. Again, talk about real life skills.

Then the girls could deliver the food themselves to the food shelf. They could also work to hand out the food so they could see the people their money and time and effort would be helping. Talk about a life changing experience.

What an incredible idea.


The girls could even visit other area businesses to see if they would be interested in matching part of their donation.

Plus, the troop could contact the Gazette, our local paper, so there would be pictures for the entire process. It's not out of reason to imagine a local news channel, like channel 8 out of Grand Forks, picking up the story too.

I mean who wouldn't like that type of feel good story? Especially given the recession we're in.

Think about all the good publicity this would not only generate for the troop but also set an example for giving back to one's community.


But her idea was shot down in a matter of seconds.

Apparently, the troop is set on getting their hair done at Josef's School for Hair in Grand Forks, going to see a local play, and then going to a local lake.

But aren't the Girl Scout supposed to be about community service? Now I know they have written letters and knit blankets for the troops and babysat for couples during athletic events and so on, but come on, here is a chance to give back in a really big way, and it is ignored in favor of getting hair done.

That just doesn't make sense to me.

Dorian Gray an Emo?

One of my more talented writers, handed this in to me some time ago. It's her contemporary version of Dorian Gray as an Emo.

I think the idea was sparked by a story I was relating about my fear that Casey was becoming an Emo earlier this year. When we took him school clothes shopping, he mentioned wanting to dye his hair dark and all that. Having had an Emo in my summer school session at the ALC, I knew where this was heading.

Then he wanted to get shoes! Instead of the preppy Pumas we had bought him last year, this year he wanted to go to Journeys in the mall and get . . . gulp, Etnies, the shoe choice of Emos everywhere.

Well, I began calling him Tickle Me Emo and we both had a chuckle.

Thankfully, Casey never took the plunge into the Emo trend (hey, who am I to say anything - I had a different Def Leppard and Metallica T-shirt for every day of the week plus a mullet and stone washed jeans).

Here is the updated version of Dorian Gray:

What a class!

Just finished my end of the year survey with my College Comp class. Talk about a talented group. I honestly can say that I have had some of the best writers I've ever had the privilege of teaching.

The highlights - Oh where to begin? How about at the end? Their research papers were top notch. It pained me to knock of a few papers down because of in-text citation and formatting issues, but as I said, "It won't do you any good for me to grade you lightly now when your college professors will hammer you on this stuff." That was one of the hardest tasks for me: evaluating their papers like a college professor would.

Luckily, I had quite a few who could step right into a university setting and hold their own.

I enjoyed this class because they took their writing seriously, yet they had fun with it too. Those things made their work wonderful to read.

I'm going to miss them. Fortunately, I have many signed up for College Comp II.

I also have 60 new writers signed up for three sections of College Comp I.

Now, I just have to go over the feedback my classes have given me, reflect a bit, do some comp theory research, do some more writing, and see how I can fine tune the class for next year.

A good librarian

How can you tell a good librarian? When you return a book that you just read (and have had checked out for months), and you come out with two more books to read!

A sure sign it's the last week of school: Nearly every teacher is showing a movie.  (I'm no exception.  In College Comp we watched Training Day and compared it to "Young Goodman Brown."  In Lit & Language 11 we began The Village today.  I usually use this in conjunction with The Crucible and Fahrenheit 451, but I couldn't fit it in until now. The trips to the Dairy Queen are under way.  We will venture there last block on Friday. Nearly everyone is packing it in.  This goes for both students and teachers alike.  I'm using having no first block - all seniors who are now long gone - to get my work done and all my grading finished.  There are a few brave souls giving finals and working right to the last day.  I admire those people.  I thought about pushing the due date for the research paper back, but there was no way I was going to subject myself to grading 25 research papers over the weekend.  If that means packing it in for the final four days (when in all honesty it's ludicrous that the rest of the school is even here), well so be it.  I'm a bad teacher. The call for extra credit.  "I'm at a 46 percents, is there anything extra I can do to get my grade up to passing."  Enough said. Locker clean out.  The trash bags runner over with tablets and other junk that has piled up in lockers over the year. Room preparation.  The one I always hate.  It seems ridiculous to pack everything in my room away for a mere 9 weeks or so.  That's a lot of packing to do.  Especially when I teach summer school, and I'll need to dig some of it out anyway.  But oh well.  Eight weeks from now they'll get around to cleaning my room and I'll be thankful I packed everything away. Supply purchases are due.  This is almost laughable since we had our budgets cut by half a few years ago.  I believe we were told, "This won't be permanent."  Well, we are still working with half of what we used to have.  It seems foolish to submit a purchase order for such little things as pens and pencils and tag board.  I'll just save my receipts from Sam's Club or Office Max this summer. The big end of school celebration.  Well, we used to have one of these where the teachers all got together to offer various activities for the kids.  I used to show Lord of the Rings in the band room with Mr. Felt.  Other teachers observed kids skateboarding out in the parking lot.  There was a Texas Hold 'em tournament in one room.  Video games in another.  Dancing in the gym.   Then everyone got together for drawings and prizes in the old gym.  But few bothered to turn out for this, so the whole thing was junked.  Too bad. Regardless, I'm looking for school to be done.  I get to spend my days with Kenzie.  Let me tell you, when I can't begin to tell you how wonderful it is and how blessed I am to walk it her room and see that little girl lying there peering up at me.  When she sees me, she giggles and begins thrashing around.  This morning she was on all fours with her little but up in the air talking to herself.  When I walked in, she broke out in a huge smile and flipped over and began jabbering away. Now that's how I could spend every morning for the rest of my life.

I knew there was a conspiracy!

http://omg.yahoo.com/news/at-t-may-have-swayed-idol-outcome-to-favor-kris-allen/23028 Aha!  It had to be rigged!  How else could Lambert have lost American Idol?

Ever since the trees in our backyard bloomed, our DirecTV reception has been poor, especially on the local channels, which do not even come in.  This, of course, rendered American Idol and all local news a smattering of broken images - if not a completely black screen with a blue box in the lower left corner that reads "Unable to receive signal from receiver 1." Thus, I called DirecTV.  After wrestling with their damned answering machine (I'd take someone who cannot decipher my northern accent or someone in India of those machines any day), I was able to talk to a real live person. They put in a service call.  A person would be there Tuesday between 4 and 8 to adjust the satellite dish. I was thoroughly impressed then when I got home and saw a DirecTV van parked outside.  As I pulled around back and got out with Kenzie, I saw the employee come around to the back of the house, where our satellite dish is mounted on the right side of our roof. He cocked an eye at the dish, pointed to a branch, and said, "That one is your problem.  Cut that one, and it'll work fine."  He went on to say that he didn't really want to move the dish to the garage, which, to me, seemed like it would remedy all of our problems.  However, I wanted the reception to improve as quickly as possible and trimming one branch was fine with me. Now I should say here that a few summers ago when our reception was interrupted, I trimmed the hell out of that tree.  Basically, I massacred the tree.  Kristie was not impressed since I made our tree look like some deformed mutant with bare limbs shorn off at odd angles. By the time I went to the garage to grab the tree trimmer, the DirecTV worker as gone. I trimmed the branch and went inside to check the reception. The same.   So much for a service call. I phoned DirecTV again.  The person on the other end was not impressed with the DirecTV service tech.  He informed me that the tech was not to leave the house until every receiver and TV was working properly. I wish I would have known that! Now I have to wait until Thursday to have the dish relocated. I just hope it's not the same tech guy.  He'll probably have me move the dish myself

Not my dream job

If Ken Robinson has my dream job, Ron Elliott has my nightmare job: diving for sea urchins at the Farallone islands off the coast of San Francisco, maybe the most Great White infested waters in the world.

In a given year, he may see a great white shark 200-300 times!

The Devil's Teeth - More Video - IFC.com

Shared via AddThis

The Devil's Teeth - More Video - IFC.com

The Devil's Teeth - More Video - IFC.com

Shared via AddThis

Ken Robinson

I came across the name Ken Robinson from a podcast I was listening to on the way to work this morning. The podcast was devoted to creativity in teaching. When the keynote presenter on the podcast mentioned Mr. Robinson, who is referred to as a "creativity expert."

Wow. That's what I want to be when I grow up.

When I read on the TED website, which features the video below, it states that Robinson "champions a radical rethink of our school systems to cultivate creativity." He argues too that our current school system kills creativity or rather students "get educated out of creativity." To which I respond: Amen.

Now this is interesting given that about half a dozen of my best and brightest students (in my College Comp class) just intentionally bombed their NWEA tests in order to get back to class and watch the film that I am showing (Training Day) to conclude the year. As we are watching it, we are comparing it to "Young Goodman Brown."

The students simply saw it - through no influence from me (honest) - as just another damn test that doesn't mean one damn thing to them. Yet, they wanted to get back to class and get back to creating. Now you may say how is watching a film creating, well, it's a creative activity, especially given the discussion we are having about it. Whereas the test? Well, that's staring at a computer screen and answering a series of multiple choice testing. Not exactly the epitome of creativity, is it?

My question is, if our best and brightest think of testing this way, what do the bulk of our student body think of testing?

I have a feeling our current high school agenda - thanks to the people at NWEA, MCA, and all those other standardized test bastards and NCLB, are doing a fine job of educating the creativity right out of our kids.

That's sad.

I was able to make it to a few graduation receptions on Saturday.  In doing so, I was reminded of the impact teachers have on their students. I pulled into the first reception and meandered my way into the garage where Brady, the graduate, was visiting.  I didn't want to bother him right away, so I visited with a former coworker who retired last year and several of my future College Comp students who were there. I saw Brady's mother and talked to her a bit.  I said, "I haven't had a chance to talk to Brady yet." She cut me off and said, "Oh, he knows you're here.  As soon as he saw you he came up to me and said, 'Mom, Mr. Reynolds is here!'' That made me smile.  I was reminded of the impact I must have made on Brady. At another reception I was able to visit with the Lunkes.  I gave their first son, Kyle, a hard time for not inviting me to his graduation several years ago.  He felt terrible about it, but I was really just joking with him.  So this year his Mom promised me at conferences that I'd get an invite to Kevin's (their youngest) reception.  I did, but it was scheduled the same time as Casey's reception, so I couldn't make it. However, I was lucky to find Kyle and his parents sitting at a table at the second reception I made it to on Saturday.  We had a great conversation, and I was able to get caught up with Kyle.  Then Kevin showed up, and we had a good talk.  I'll miss him. The final reception was a three in one - it was out at the golf course and three families decided to consolidate their parties into one, which was a great idea.  Here I was able to see many parents for the final time as their youngest graduate. I was also reminded of the impact of my honors speech from a few weeks ago.  I had several parents at various receptions tell me how much they liked it and thought it was a good message for their kids. That too was nice to hear. Sometimes I get so caught up in correcting and lesson planning and entering grades and attendance that I forget about the personal impact my job has on students and their families. Here is a rough version of the honors speech - Welcome, I would like to take a moment to have the students try and envision what their worlds will look like in five years.  Or if they are really bold, try to imagine what the world will look like when you are in your parents' places in the future when you are sitting with your son or daughter at their honors banquet.   It is almost impossible to imagine what their world will be like even five years into the future.  Most of the workforce, according to the US Department of Labor will have held around 10-14 difference jobs by the time they are 38.  The rule of 90 is no longer a rule at all.  Much of what they will learn as freshman in college next year will be outdated by the time they are juniors. That is the world these honor students are entering. I began thinking about how much the world has changed when I listened to a podcast featuring George Miller speaking to the National Press Club in reaction to the 2008 study "A Democracy at Risk," the Congressman said something that made a lot of sense: "We recognize that the students are digital and the systems are analog."   I would hasten to add that, "some of their teachers/parents are vinyl." If you know what vinyl is – or even – an eight track, well the world has changed a lot in your life times. Ever since I heard a podcast featuring Thomas Friedman talking about his book The World is Flat (and if you're thinking what is a podcast – you're so 20th century!) in which he talks about how the world has been flattened by millions of miles of fiber optic cables, satellites and telecommunications, and the internet, I have been asking people the question – where were you when you discovered the world was flat? If you're thinking, no . . .  I'm quite sure that the world is not flat.  Well, you're so 20th century. If you don't believe that the world is flat . . . let's examine just a few of the changes in our media in our life times. Anyone here – and you don't have to embarrass yourself by raising your hands – you can just smirk or laugh – remember not having TV?  Remember listening to radio shows such as The Shadow Knows, Dimension X, The Lone Ranger, and Dick Tracey? Does anyone remember when TV was black and white?  Or when there wasn't even a remote control?  Remember having to change the channel manually.  I was my father's remote control!  Remember when you had to turn the dial and it went 'click, click, click' and you got about 12 channels total?  Remember those early color TVs?  My grandmother had one made out of wood that had vinyl over the speakers and took up half a wall.  Remember when getting a VCR was a big deal?   Now we have flat screen TVs and DVRs. How about what we watched?   Remember having one chance to catch a TV show and if you were busy or gone, you had to wait a whole year before you saw it again?   Remember Charlie Brown and the Great Pumpkin?  A Christmas story (before TNT played it for 24 hours straight on Christmas)?  Or my father's favorite, The Ten Commandments.  Well, I wanted to be busy or gone for that!  What 8-year-old wants to spend four hours watching that!   I just downloaded the Great Pumpkin on my iPod (and if you're thinking, "What is an iPod?" You're so 20th century) and I can watch in anytime and anywhere I want. How about sports?  Remember Howard Cosell on Monday Night Football where you'd wait for the highlights at the halftime show because you never got to see any other games.  There was no ESPN or Monday Night Countdown. Ever watch a game for 20 minutes just to see the score of that game?  Not to mention scores of other games?  Now you watch a game and it has scores and stats scrolling horizontally and vertically.  It looks like the New York Stock Exchange. Now I have DirecTV and the NFL Network and Sunday Ticket where I can watch every game . . . all on the same channel if I want.  I can also program in my fantasy football team and have their stats flash up on the screen whenever Carson Palmer throws another touchdown or Adrian Peterson fumbles again or Brett Favre throws another interception. And these are just a few of the changes that have happened in our life times. The world is indeed flat.   I remember when I first discovered this. I was correcting papers one evening at our dining room table.  I heard Casey talking to someone in his room.  I asked my wife if he had any friends over and she said she didn't think so.  I could hear him playing his Xbox, so I knocked on his door and peaked in. There Casey was sprawled out in his recliner playing some World of War game with one of those headset things on and a Mountain Dew and a bag of Doritos right next to him. He smirked and said, "You want to know who I'm talking to?' I cuffed him upside the said and said, "no, smarty.  I want to know to whom you're talking.  Don't end your sentences with prepositions." He then informed me that he was talking to his friends who were playing on his team.  They were all in their rooms, in their recliners, with their Mountain Dews and Doritos.  They were using Xbox live to play on the same team via the internet. "We're fighting the Germans," Casey added. "Oh.  It's a World War II game then," I concluded. "No," Casey said.  "We are playing against Germans." Casey and his friends were playing German kids who were all in their rooms, in their recliners, with their German versions of Mountain Dew and Doritos. Sure enough, I heard some harsh sounding German coming over Casey's headset.   Then Casey's team was obliterated by their foes. "I hate it when they do that!" Casey said. It seems that whenever they wanted to communicate with Casey and his friends, the Germans spoke fluent English.  However, when they needed to devise battle tactics, they spoke in German. That is a flat world. When this happened, the floodlights went off above my head.  I thought if my step-son, who has a part time job at a local grocery store, along with a couple dollars a month for wireless internet can afford to do this with the available technology, what is happening in the board rooms of billion dollar corporations?   That is one reason the world has become flat and one reason a country as far away as India with a city like Bangalore can creep right up to our shores and outsource or offshore – pick your verb – millions of American jobs. As Friedman says, "The flat world has one rule: what can be done, will be done.  It just will either be done BY you or TO you."  That is the power of a flat world. This generation will have so many opportunities before them.  You must take advantage of them. Next year in college, you will have opportunities to . . . as Friedman states, "connect, collaborate, and compete" unlike any generation every before.  Make the most of your college education and the chances you'll have. I'll give you another example of how the flat world can impact your education. Several teachers here are part of a history grant through the MNHS and Hamline.  I was at our spring class a few weeks ago at the Swenson House.  We were told that we had to bring laptops for this session.  So 35 teachers showed up with their laptops.  And because the Swenson House has wireless internet, we were all able to open up our laptops and connect with the internet. Our presenter began her PowerPoint on the Foshay Tower in Minneapolis.  Now us dinosaurs like to think we're being modern and technologically savvy with our PowerPoint or Keynote presentations, but we're so 20th century.  They are really tantamount to writing on a green chalkboard given what these kids today are able to do.  However, by the time the presenter was on her second slide, I typed in Foshay Tower into google and hit images.  Dozens of images popped up in front of me.  I saw the blueprints for the tower as well as pictures of it being constructed.  I saw pictures of the owner and architect.  I had looked at several all before she was done with the third slide. Then I punched it into youtube.  Two videos came up right away.  One was a Ch. 9 news store that focused on three people who base-jumped off the tower.  Another was a homemade one where someone had traveled to the top of the tower and taken out their cell phone – which has a video camera built in – and filmed a 360-degree view of the Minneapolis nighttime skyline.   All by the time the presenter was done with her fifth slide. Someone asked where the tower was located. Then about a dozen on us punched it in to mapquest and we got detailed directions from anywhere . . . our front door, the Radisson, the Metro Dome, the Mall of America, right to the Foshay Tower.  And all of this by the time our presenter was on the eighth slide.  That is the power the flat world in education. So next year when you're in your dorm and you're feeling tired or overwhelmed or if your' thinking about heading out to a party, think about what Friedman says "When I was a kid in Minneapolis, my parents said, Tom eat your vegetables because people in India and China are starving.  Now I tell my daughters, do your homework because people in India and China are starving for your jobs.  And in a flat world, they can have them." If you don't believe me, think of this . . . if you're one in a million in China, there are 1,300 others just like YOU.  In India there are 1,100.  What does that mean?  Well, tonight we're at an banquet celebrating our honor students . . . both China and India have more honor students than we have STUDENTS. If that doesn't motivate you, maybe this will . . . Alan Winder, the economist at Princeton estimates that in the next 30 years we can expect to have 40 million jobs outsourced. Now that's scary.  That's a crisis.  But as one of my favorite sayings states, "A crisis is a terrible thing to waste."  It's been 50 years since the Sputnik crisis where America pushed her best and brightest into math and science.  But that generation is now retiring.  It is now up to this generation to start addressing and solving some of the challenges this new crisis presents.  Remember, "connect, collaborate, and compete." I don't want this talk to be all doom and gloom.  But there is plenty of room for hope.  The flat world is full of potential. Just a few weeks ago I finished reading a memoir by Tom Romano, who is a real heavy in the composition theory realm and teaches at the University of Miami (Ohio).  I thought it was great and took a chance and looked up his email address.  I shot him a quick email telling him how much I liked the book and how I was going to use one of his essays for a prompt in my College Comp class. It wasn't 15 minutes before I got a reply from Tom.  He thanked me for the praise and said he really liked my prompt and that he was going to use it with one of his classes and give me credit.  Furthermore, he suggested that I develop it into a presentation for the NCTE convention either in '10 or '11.  That is what I mean when I say, "connect, collaborate, and compete." So when you're tired or thinking about slacking off instead of doing your homework and trying your hardest, think of this quote from one of my favorite people, James Burke, "Every healthy human being has about the same number of neurons in the skull - about 100 billion.  Each one of them has up to 50,000 connecting dendrites, each of which can be in contact with other connecting dendrites up to the same number, which means that inside the brain a thought can go any one of a number of routes which are larger than the number of atoms in the known universe!  And everyone has one."     Don't waste that!     In closing, work hard and above all, "connect, collaborate, and compete."     It has been an honor to teach you and have you in my classes.

The big evening

This is a piece from Learning Matters. It again focuses on Michelle Rhee as she tries to find principals to fix the DC school district.

This one focuses on Darrin Slade, a principal at Ron Brown middle school. Sounds like an interesting guy.

Slade's approach to working with teachers and kids is the personification of how to fix schools. As the clip shows, he is constantly visible. He lives and breathes that school.

Some friends who bash poor teaching always claim that tenure prevents administrators from firing bad teachers. While I can't discount that, I will simply reiterate what Rhee has stated again and again, her administrators allow poor teaching to go on because most a conflict adverse. They are scared to hold failing teachers accountable.

Darrin Slade isn't. His constant presence is a fine example.

Get in the rooms and call bad teachers out on the carpet. While that might not fix every bad teacher, I just fail to see how any professional with any shred of pride and dignity and sense of self preservation would not respond to that!

But as he says, the hardest part about improving a school is improving test scores and getting teachers to do their jobs to their full potential. To remedy this, Slade has a constant presence, not only observing teachers and sitting in on classes but also teaching some classes. Of course, he checks to make sure teachers' lessons are geared toward skills and knowledge that will be tested - and that makes me cringe - but he has seized his school by the gruff of the neck and is in control.

That - at least it seems to me - is how you fix a failing school.

More graduation pictures

Kristie's brothers, Eddie and Brian, stopped over on Saturday. Gail had spent the night, so she looked after Kenzie and tried to get pictures with everyone in various groups and poses. After visiting St. Pauli's cemetery over by Hazel, Ed and Lori stopped over. Then Tricia stopped over to visit. Kristie, though exhausted, was a great host.

I stayed for a little while before heading up to TRF to catch several graduation parties.

I found the festivities in full swing though when I returned. As soon as I got out of the car I could smell the fire and hear the laughter.

Kristie and Lori.



Grandpa Ed



Brian



Eddie



Now I know what all the laughter was about. Look at this crew!

Kristie picking on her brothers - as usual.



Chelsie showing off.



Jacob and Ed




Popping a wheelie with Kenzie.



And Grandma all too happy to chronicle it all on her new digital camera. You'll never see a happier person than Gail when her kids are all together. Well, except when they'll all hold still long enough for a picture. Of course, that's nearly impossible since they know it irritates her. But it doesn't stop her from trying!

Graduation

How can you tell that KoKo has been taking pictures? Well, she takes pictures of EVERYTHING. I recall when we went to the cities to see Rent, KoKo began taking pictures of various buildings and cars while we were still on the interstate . . . and at night!

I swear she even took a picture of the inside of the closet in the hotel room!

Here is more of her handiwork.

KoKo's obligatory self portrait.





A license plate. Who knows why?



A picture of Austin, KoKo's cousin, taking a picture of her. Wonder what's on his camera?



Gail - the picture Nazi - doing what she always does at any gathering - hording people together to take a picture.



A pan of bars???? Ask KoKo!!

And then there was one . . .

. . . and then there was none.

Our robin's nest is now empty. There were three babies in there. But on Monday one hopped out. On Tuesday the second one followed. It took awhile for the third one to take the leap, but he was gone Thursday morning.

Kristie thought it was a fitting metaphor for Casey, who graduates today and moves down to the cities on Sunday.

Congrats, Casey

I'm always amazed at how my classes react to Jaws when we watch it in class.  This year's juniors are rapt.  They are on the edge of their desks. Why? Because Spielberg does something that rarely happens in suspense/horror films, he accurately depicts the human drama of the characters.  We care about Chief Martin Brody and whether he'll make it home to his family and whether or not he'll kill the Great White that is stalking the beaches of Amitty. Of course, it's a hell of an adventure too.  But there's more to it than that.  Spielberg taps into our primordial fears of the unknown and of being eaten alive.   John Williams' score is brilliant, and Spielberg uses music to perfectly manipulate the viewers.  Students always leap up during the Ben Gardner boat scene where the rather fake looking severed heads slowly bobs up from a hole in ship's hull.  They jump because Spielberg perfectly manipulates our mood via the score. Spielberg also masterfully employs the power of suggestion.  He knows all too well that he is stuck with a large, fake looking wood shark.  If you have ever watched any of the documentaries on the film, you know too that the shark rarely worked properly.  So Spielberg wisely keeps it off screen.  I think this is one reason Bram Stoker's Dracula scares the hell out of people: the Count is rarely on stage (so to speak). Spielberg uses the power of suggestion better than any film I can recall.  We hear Williams' famous "da --  da . . . da -- da . . ." and we know the shark is there.  We don't need to see it. Sure we see a fin here and there, but really Spielberg waits until the final ten minutes of the film to reveal the whole shark - when it inexplicably leaps onto the ship and gobbles up Quint.  Of course, it is ludicrous.  Sharks just don't do that.  Unless they're breaching and you're totally in the wrong spot at the wrong time, that will never happen. But because we are caught up in the human drama, we can suspend our disbelief long enough to swallow that image of the fake monster shark eating up everything in those final minutes.  This is a mistake most films make - think of Speed where the bus leaps a 50 foot section of highway or in Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull where Jones escapes an atomic bomb test by hiding in a lead lined refrigerator.  Once those scenes happen, the reader pulls back and says, "Okay, I'm just enjoying my popcorn right now.  This is just a movie." That rarely happens in Jaws, which is why it scares so many people.  It's also why the kids will sit in rapt silence watching a film that is over 30 years old.  That in itself is quite a feat.

How is this not murder?

I don't care what religion one is or what goofy beliefs they have. This is murder. After having lost both my parents to cancer, how can this brainwashed woman do this to her son?

http://www.startribune.com/local/45427417.html?elr=KArks7PYDiaK7DUHPYDiaK7DUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUU

One of my students said it best when we were discussing this story in its early stages where the judge ruled that parents had to begin Daniel on chemo treatments, after having taken their son off of chemo because of their beliefs: "You can't fix stupid."

I just hope they can find stupid and give her son the life saving treatment he needs.

"Mr. Reynolds," a student said as I came down the hallway this morning, "I won't be in your class today.  I have to take a test." "Oh, which one?" I asked. "The Alka-Seltzer test," she replied. "Uh, you mean the Accuplacer test?" "Oh yeah.  That's it!" Good luck with that one!

Last night when I drove to Gail's to pick up our patio furniture; I listened my way through the 60 Minutes podcasts on my ipod.  I had forgotten about the wonderful piece on the Milenials (see the video below). I love that little clip they show of all the kids at the athletic event holding up trophies.  It seems we are paying for the "you are ALL special" mantra that parents have drowned their kids in. It reminds me of that great line from Pixar's The Incredibles, when the mother won't let her son show of his incredible speed, hence his name, "Dash," she tells him, "everyone is special."  Dash replies, "Which is another way of saying that no body is." I think the Milenials are the products of being coddled by their parents and led (wrongly) to believe that they are truly special in whatever they do. I think of parents (and be careful here, Kurt, so that you don't fall prey to this one day) who flock to the front rows of middle school choir recitals and elementary basketball games to video tape every second of their son or daughter's performance. Really.  Does anyone ever watch those things? Dad made all the football games he could.  But he was often late because he had to finish harvesting.  But his lateness proved a vital lesson to me:  it's just a game.  I knew he loved football.  But it taught me that there were some things – like earning a living – that take precedents to such trivial things as sports. Have we not lost that? I think of another podcast I was listening to from Dan Carlin in which he was talking with a history professor.  The professor was talking about human nature.  He posited that human nature was constant.  The only thing that really changed was our environments and influences.  The professor was arguing that we are not necessarily more self-absorbed than we were in the past.  That potential for self-absorption is constant in human nature.  However, he argues that certain changes in our culture and lifestyles have caused us to give in to that trait more than in the past. And this is that part that reminds me of the Milenials and their 'me first' lifestyles. The professor stated that we have –to use his terms –lost the yeoman farmer experience.  Since only a fraction of the population actually farms or works intensively, the rest of us have lost that closeness to nature – and its brutality.  Hence, a farmer in early American history could work tirelessly to produce a crop to feed his family.  Yet, just because of a change in the weather, a storm could ruin it completely.  And that farmer had to deal with it.  Through no fault of his own, everything was lost.  Dealing with that type of brutality in life forced one to have little time for self-centeredness. The Milenials could use a little does of brutality.  Or what my parents dubbed, "the Real World." But more power to them if they can actually force "the Real World" to conform to them!

The Milenials are coming!!!

Watch CBS Videos Online

Absent minded. That's me. I'm reminded of a time years ago when I was baling hay with Dad.  We spent an entire afternoon bailing alfalfa. We would fill a trailer, haul it over to our hayshed, and turn on the bale elevator. Then I would begin setting bales on the elevator while Dad would climb up into the hay shed and stack the bales I sent him.   Finally, toward dusk, we had the last trailer loaded.  All I had to do was drive it over the elevator, unload it, and we'd blessed done!  Well, it was a jaunt from the field to the hay shed.  Dad was on the hay rack while I drove the 730 (one of the rare times he let me drive.  Usually, I got stuck stacking the bales and riding on the trailer).  Naturally, with some free time, I let my mind wander. I was off somewhere else when I managed to maneuver the tractor next to the bale elevator.  But for some reason I neglected to stop.  I was just putzing along, totally oblivious to the task at hand. Finally, I thought, huh, I should probably stop.  I've pulled way past the elevator and hay shed.  I turned around, wondering why Dad hadn't yelled to break me out of my daze.  That was when I saw that Dad had already hopped off the tractor - a good 75 yards ago -and unhooked the trailer while I just putzed along in second gear.  I looked back at Dad, who held the trailer hitch in his hand with his hat cocked back on his head, which was shaking in amusement at my absent mindedness. Well, I have never really changed. You don't know how much time I spend looking for copies I've made before class that I set down when I walked into my room and then forgot where I set them.  Or the bottles of pop I've purchased and left around the school when I stopped to talk to someone or check my mail.  Or the time spent searching for my keys or checkbook at home. Yesterday was a microcosm of my absent mindedness. Actually, it began the night before.  Kristie had me grab a little broom and tray (whatever it is that attaches to the small hand held broom and is used to store what you sweep up).  I was supposed to sweep up some paint chips lying in a pile on the front steps that Kristie had scraped off earlier in the afternoon.  I remember grabbing the broom and tray.  I remember putting them both away.  I just forgot to sweep up the paint scrapings.  Sure enough, when I opened the door, there was a large pile of debris that was impossible to miss.  Yet, somehow I managed to miss it. Next, I was supposed to take some bills to school so I could call and inquire about a few details during my prep.  Yet, what did I leave right on the kitchen table? Then, when I got home I had to take off to Gail's to pick up our patio furniture.  Kristie told me to be sure to set a rug and a plastic liner that Gail left behind when she moved out in the back of Casey's truck.  That way I could take them back to Gail's when I got the furniture.  Yet, what did I totally forget to grab when I left?   After that, I got a phone message from Kristie stating that I had blanked out something else.  We had this large box that we used to store our excess cardboard in over the winter.  I had taken the cardboard to the recycling center the day before.  However, the bottom of the box was full of paper and magazines.  Some of the papers were old bills and so forth, so the information was private.  I intended to sort through all that and then burn it when I brought our fire pit back from Gail's.  Yet, Kristie's message informed me that not only did the garbage men dump the large garbage container we had rented for cleaning out our garage and basement, but they had also taken the large box full of papers! I think I must have set some kind of record yesterday.  Somewhere my dad is looking down with his hat cocked back on his head, which he is shaking emphatically, while he is saying in his slow southern drawn, "Kris, I know exactly how you feel!"

I was really hesitant to use "The Yellow Wallpaper" with my Lit and Language class.  My College level classes love it.  But I thought it might be a little too boring and methodical for my juniors. How wrong I was. I had them read it first and complete a series of reader response starters to chronicle their thoughts as they interacted with Gilman's text. A few complained that it was boring. Yet, the next day when we listened to it (I always think re-reading is a rewarding activity), the students were spellbound.  I know this is because a few never read it in the first place, but I think for others, the story just worked its magic (or terror) on them. It was great watching their reactions to the narrator's descent into madness. When she acknowledged to creeping around like the lady in the wallpaper, I literally saw students shudder. Now, that's the power of "The Yellow Wallpaper." Today I have them writing a short essay in which they apply several literary theories to it (feminism, historicism, psychological, and post modernism).  Can't wait to read those and see what they think.

UGH

It's enough to make one wish for winter again.  It makes me long for the drifts piled up to one's chin with the temperature so low that no leaving creature dare venture forth.  Yes. I'm talking about winter.  What dreaded activity is almost enough to make me miss it? That's simple: yard work. We are having a very small and informal gathering for Casey's graduation on Friday.  That means kicking it into high gear and getting not only the house but the yard cleaned up. Kristie lives for this kind of stuff.  Her work ethic is indefatigable.  At least in the winter there isn't much to do other than shovel the walk occasionally and let the dogs out. But spring is a whole different story. To get us motivated (no easy objective), Kristie had lists for Casey, KoKo, and I. I was a grunt.  "Haul crap" was the first thing on my list.  That meant hauling crap out of our basement and over to the large trash receptacle Kristie rented for the occasion.  I was also part babysitter.  I believe Kristie said early on the first day of cleaning, "I wish I could send you and Kenzie somewhere so I can get some work done!"  We tend to get distracted.  I also tend to take my sweet time about things (don't blame me.  I got this from my dad and his slow southern ways).  I move in first gear . . . second, tops.  Kristie is in warp speed.  To wrap up my duties I was also a gopher . . . go for food and refreshments. Kristie took to weeding and raking like a woman possessed.  She goes after that stuff the way she goes after painting.  I believe she said, "Putting that first streak of paint on the wall is one of the greatest feelings."  Don't ask me.  She's funny like that. Then she helped clean out the garage and move crap out of the basement. Casey broke out of his funk at being up so early in the morning and having to do something and worked quite hard at mowing the lawn and cleaning out the garage and then organizing all of his furniture for his big move down to the cities this weekend. KoKo meanwhile took to cleaning and organizing the refrigerator and pantry.  Then she cleaned the porch. Mercifully, the onslaught of work ended around 6:30 last night. Our garage is now full of things that used to be stored in the basement or upstairs closet. Our basement is uncluttered and organized once again.  One big objective of this spring cleaning is the mythical 'garage' sale that KoKo and her grandmother have been plotting since the Clinton administration. Now, it seems the day has finally dawned. Of course, we are banning Gail from attending the garage sale, knowing full well that she will buy most of what we want to get rid of and horde it in her house.  That is another topic for another blog entry.  I wonder if I could sneak my camera in there one day and get some evidence . . . Actually, one of the fun things about the cleaning was hiding the things that we desparately wanted to get rid of that we knew Gail would never let us toss. "Hide that picture frame over there," Kristie said referring to a painting that Gail had bought KoKo.  It was a beautiful painting.  Or I should say it was a beautiful painting.  But the frame was cracked and the glass shattered. See, Gail is known to pick through the trash (something my dad did too) and retrieve items that one wants to discard. Gail's specialty with this is stuffed animals.  I believe Kristie tried tossing a stuffed animal only to find it days later magically residing at her mother's instead. So we were on the look out when we began trudging up two huge garbage bags full of stuffed animals that KoKo has garnered over the years.  There were also several plastic totes full. Kristie sat down to help KoKo discern which animals were to be sold and which were to be kept.  By this time Gail had meandered out with Kenzie.  Casey and I sat in on the selection process.  Casey and I advised KoKo to sell as many as possible while Gail would try and talk KoKo into keeping each and every - regardless how trivial or old or ripped to shreds or pissed on - stuffed animal. "Oh that one's cute.  Keep it," she said. "Gramma.  I got that in a Happy Meal," KoKo said tossing it into the 'sold' pile. "Well, it's cute," Gail said making a mental note of which one to buy when she sneaks into the garage sale. So began the process of KoKo selecting a stuffed animal from the mount of figures.  Then Casey and I would try to talk her into selling it ("How do you know another little child won't need it or appreciate it while you just store it in a tote" was our best argument), while Gail would talk her into keeping the item, no matter WHAT it was.  KoKo made the final decision while Kristie just watched the debate. Of course, KoKo is a little Gramma Gail herself.  The pile of actually 'sold' stuffed animals was dwarfed by the 'keep' pile.  I swear when KoKo gets old, she is going to have to have an entire room devoted to her stuffed animals.  (I know what you are saying . . . well, what about your Legos?  Well, I have stopped collecting them for the time being.  I mean we are running out of shelf space and my desk at school can only hold so many). Now to be fair, my father was the same way when it came to collecting junk. You can ask my sister and Kristie what it was like to rummage through Dad's shop and quonset packed FULL of crap that Dad horded or couldn't let go to the trash.  Trust me, Dad too has rummaged through the trash on several occasions. I remember him complaining about Barb and the girls cleaning out his kitchen and helping him reorganize.  To accentuate his frustration he began opening drawers and cupboard and complaining that he didn't know where anything was.  I couldn't help but notice how neatly organized and hung everything looked. Then he admitted, as he opened one drawer, that he was shocked at what they had tried (note the past tense of that verb) to get rid of. "Just look at what they wanted to throw out," Dad said as he opened to door to reveal the items he had personally retrieved from the garbage bags Barg and the girls had filled. I couldn't help but laugh, recalling a Denver Broncos hat a friend's bother had left in my car in 1990.  I tossed it in the garbage bin in the shop.  Soon, though, Dad had dug it out.  And there it sat on the shop bench for - oh - 16 years until Dad passed and we had to clean out the shop! And that was the very peak of the tip of the ice berg.  Dad had dozens of used plastic oil cans.  Dozens of mismatched shoes.  Books that would never be read.  Dozens of unmarked drum full of oil, gas, diesel, and kerosene.  Hundreds of rags . . . it was a mess. Now, I admit that I save quite a bit too.  But I can recognize the time when it comes to bid something farewell and let it go to the landfill. I can only hope that all of our stuff goes - not to Gail either - at our garage sale.  That way KoKo can start stocking up for the next one.

The Nest

The babies. It's hard to tell, but there are three packed into that little nest.



Momma robin giving us a dirty look.

A little help . . .

Kenzers and I spotted a robin that has a nest with two little birdies in there right next to our front door. We've been monitoring their progress every day. It's been so cold that Mom has not been off the little guys much at all. Though yesterday we did watch her feeding them. One little guy looks like he's ready to start hopping out of the nest.

For the foreseeable future, the cats are confined to the house!

I thought of the robins when we watched this video on yahoonews

Okay, the picture didn't come through. Here's the link.  Hope it's active. http://www.amazon.com/Pride-Prejudice-Zombies-Classic-Ultraviolent/dp/1594743347/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1242409301&sr=8-1

Now this looks really cool!

It's that time of year

“Mr. Reynolds, what can I do to get my grade up?”

Ha. How about turning in your work? Or actually doing it?

This is when the cynical bitter teacher in me comes out. Students have slacked off for the past 16 weeks now, and suddenly, they expect a miracle to happen. Or worse . . . extra credit.

Sorry.

“Do the work that's left and turn it in,” I said. It doesn’t get more basic than that.

The McEssay

Well, it's becoming a reality.

I got a message awhile ago from one of the editors that Getting it in Writing is set for a fall release. I can't wait to look myself up on amazon.

The Giver

After reading The Outsiders, KoKo just knocked of The Giver.

For their final assignment for The Outsiders, KoKo and a classmate created a scrapbook for the novel. It is quite good. They went so far as to actually burn the edges of a letter that was retrieved from the fire in the church. That is meaningful work.

Last night - even though she wasn't supposed to read ahead, which makes zero sense to me - she finished The Giver.

When asked if she read ahead, KoKo wisely lied and said no. She would have lost all of her points had she told the truth.

This seems backwards to me.

Why punish kids for reading?

I pray kids will read ahead in my class.

Sometimes as teachers we can take something special and magical like a kid's connection with a book and reduce it to a series of true and false quizzes or reading check guides. Ugghhhh.

Now, don't get me wrong, I struggle with the quizzes and reading guides as much as the next teacher.

But to punish someone for reading ahead?

Idiocy!

I was reminded of how foolish I was being about this earlier in the quarter when I assigned the first couple chapters of TKM. Before a student left after class, she asked if she could get several worksheets for the upcoming chapters.

"I don't read a novel just two chapters at a time. I kind of get into it and read the whole thing," she confessed.

Now what could I say to that?

How about, bravo! Thanks for teaching me a lesson.

That's when I chucked the majority of my reading schedule and just let the kids read at their own pace. I still had quizzes, guides, and creative assignments. I just had them complete the work mostly at their own pace.

Now I know some read the book in two days and some have not yet read it - and we've been done with it a week now.

Such is life.

But bravo for those who read a classroom novel as if it's a real live novel that they'd read on their own for enjoyment. We don't take many quizzes on those do we? Sure, we might not study the novels we read at home, but don't tell me we don't dive into them and enjoy them. Maybe that's better than studying? Maybe it's really the same thing?

I don't know but when a kid can stay up to close to midnight, as KoKo did last night, to devour the final few chapters of a novel . . . well, that's pretty damn special in my book - no pun intended.

Living in a flat world

This is what happens when we live in a flat world.

A few months ago I finished the memoir Zigzag by Tom Romano.

I liked it so much, as well as several of his other books, that I decided to shoot him an email.

I found his faculty page at Miami (Ohio) University and wrote him a short note thanking him for the book, telling him how much I liked it, and explaining how one of his chapters served as an impetus for that day's writing topic (which I stole from the chapter called "the way I'd like to teach." I planned to use it with my
College Composition class.  They loved it.  So I devised an
assignment where students reflected on their best moment, a moment where
they were "in the zone" as Romano was in a neat little personal narrative in which he recounts a little league game against an arch rival It allowed them to work with all of those powerful elements
that make writing so vital: voice, style, reflection, thoughts, dialog,
humor, analysis, and personality)

Amazingly, fifteen minutes later I got a reply from Dr. Romano.

He thanked me and said it was great to hear how his work was being used by fellow teachers. He liked my writing assignment so much that he was going to use it later that same day with his methods students - and he'd give me credit for it (which was ironic because I got the idea from him!).

He also suggested that I keep track of what my students come up with, do some additional research and then develop a presentation for the 2010 NCTE convention in Orlando or in 2111 in Chicago.

Wow.

It is a flat world indeed.

Top Ten Issues and Myths in Education

I just watched the NFL Network’s “Top Ten Myths of the NFL.”

It’s got me thinking about the top ten myths and issues in education.

10. Digital Learners

Myth. Don't think just because every kid has a cell phone and a facebook account that they actually know how to use this technology. Moreover, don't assume they know how to use the technology to enhance their learning.

KoKo can work her way around Facebook and can text all day long, but when it comes to navigating the web, she is too click happy and impatient. The same is true for finding information on the web.

The great thing is, once students GET the technology, they excel and leave me in the dust. But it takes awhile for them to really get around to understanding it.

9. The tenure issue

Issue. Even though I’m co-president of the teacher’s union here, I can see both sides. If you’ve read this blog at all, you’ll know I’m a big fan of Michelle Rhee. She is dead set against unions. Yet, Cal, one of the people whom I respect most here, is an ardent union member and is quick to remind me of a time not too terribly long ago when teachers had few rights and could be fired simply for not getting a long with a principal.

I admit that’s scary. But I know too – and have been victim of – many teachers who are allowed to pantomime their ways through the latter years of their careers just waiting for retirement.

What are they gonna do? Fire me? They ask.

That’s bullshit and a sin against our profession.

But I’d be a lair if I didn’t admit that such idiocy is allowed to persist.

Now, it’s up to administration to step in and make sure that the tenured teacher just doesn’t cash it in. That they, instead, stay relevant in their field, teach inspiring and relevant lessons, motivate their students, and so on.

But as Rhee found out in Washington, D.C., sometimes administrators are fearful of conflict.

Of course, it’s up to a teacher to be a professional and take an administrator’s criticism and actually fix what they are doing wrong rather than getting angry or just turning a blind eye.

In many cases, tenure is great for education. Think of all the great young teachers who never last because some distracts are unwilling to grant them tenure and pay them more. Think of all the great young teachers who want that job security and move on when they don’t get tenure.

However, as I said previously, there are a lot of awful teachers who should be tossed out because they have tenure and are pretty much free to do what they want because of it.

As Lee Iacocca said once, “Trust teachers to be professionals and pay them for the work they do.” Now administrators need to step up and hold teachers to professional standards if they don’t hold themselves to those standards.

8. More programs/policies and money will fix everything.

Myth. I hate this one. I think of the big push when I first started teaching for grad standards and the profiles of learning. While they are still around, at least bits and pieces of them are still around, I think of all the money our district pumped into them that could have gone to technology or advanced training for staff or other areas that are lacking.

I know the standards and the seminars we all went to caused us to re-evaluate how we teach and construct lessons. They did help me become a better teacher. But I can think of a lot of other things that all that money could have been spent on that would have also made me a better teacher.

Plus, when those old grizzled veteran teachers rolled their eyes, shrugged and said between clenched teeth, “This too shall pass,” they were right. And that attitude angers me.

The same is true for NCLB. If that is scrapped, we can kiss all of the money invested in that program goodbye. And all those teachers with their clenched teeth and their “This too shall pass” mantra will win again.

Instead, let’s invest in programs that really work (all day every day kindergarten, tutoring programs, small class sizes, find a way to pay exceptional teachers (don’t ask me who defines that one!), after school programs and technology - and make sure teachers know how to use it!) and I think we’d actually save money rather than throwing tons of money at every new fix it strategy that comes along.

Now, I know even in our own district that there are some programs that are given more funding or attention than other programs, and it really has some teachers worked up. I know this is not a perfect system. We have to examine what programs really work and which just look good. Look at the Read First program. A billion dollars spent on it, and what happened? Little to no influence on reading scores. Think of all that money wasted.

In terms of money, it seems to me that whenever teachers and administrators cry “more money” it gets labeled as a cop out. Give us more money and we’ll fix things. I’m not sure that always works. In fact, you can look at a lot of innovative charter schools that are doing great things without a lot of cash.

Schools also are terrible wasters. I can’t imagine what our electricity when certain lights stay on ALL the time. Or what about our heating bills when we have windows that don’t shut properly in the winter? What about going to a paperless system where students email papers to us. Does anyone know what a school spends in paper in a year? How many classroom SMART boards, iPods, and laptops could we get for that?


7. Significant content knowledge is the most important asset a teacher can have.

Myth. Not even close. A love for kids and a passion for learning and pedagogy trump content knowledge every time. Here's why - ask yourself if you remember a teacher who knew A LOT about their subject but couldn't motivate you to learn or couldn't make you understand the subject. I bet several teachers come to mind.

Now think of a teacher who really cared. How many come to mind.

Which ones made more of an impact on you?

Of course, the trick is to combine deep content knowledge with a love for kids. That's how you get great teaching.

In the end, I believe, it’s personality and passion that carry the day in teaching. I was just listening to a podcast with Thomas Friedman talking at Yale. He was going through what jobs and skills he thought could not be outsourced or replaced with machines in the future ‘flat’ world of ours. He said that one skill that can’t be outsourced is personality. He referred to a lemonade salesman at a ballpark. It doesn’t get much more basic than water with ice and a slice of lemon in it. What machine couldn’t provide that? Yet, Friedman noted how this lemonade salesman had a whole routine. He exchanged banter with the fans. He stood on his head. He knew people by name. He joked. In short, he put on a show and gave the fans something they couldn’t get anywhere else or from anything else. And guess what? At the end of every game, that guy has a wad full of money from tips larger than any other worker. That’s the power of personality.

That’s what a teacher has to do. They can’t just present the information anymore.

6. Standardized test effectively and consistently measure student learning.

Issue. They measure something. I’m not sure if it’s learning or test taking skills or what. And it scares me that we base so much on them. Imagine basing what you do right now on ONE test that you have to take. Imagine if you’d lose your kids if you don’t pass a good parent standardized test. Or in your line of work, what would you do if you had to take ONE exam to prove that you deserve to have your job. Where does this happen?

Rarely are we forced to take any kind of exams. Rarely are we forced to problem solve alone. Rarely are we forced to wager so much on such a flimsy piece of paper.

I like the quote (and I’m paraphrasing here) – judging a students education by the number of tests they take is like judging how good chili is by the number of beans.

5. Great teaching looks one specific way.

Myth. Great teaching is an art. And there are many, many different schools and genres. There are the disciplinarians. There are the odd, random-abstract types. There are the well-planned out, concrete sequential types. There are the student friendly types. There are the old school types.

I hate when administrators like Paul Vales in New Orleans tries to devise a teacher-proof curriculum. Here is the standard, the objective, and the task. Just add an adult, students, mix, and hand out the standardized tests, fill in the bubbles, show progress, and move on.

I think that is the total opposite of teaching or getting an education.

Mr. Matzke was one of my favorite teachers in high school. He made me fall in love with American history. Now Mr. Matzke loved notes. He loved to lecture. I recall spending many hours deciphering his handwriting on the board (and on his tests). But he brought enough personality to the class to hook me on history. Yet, he was about all about lecturing and taking notes. We never used a computer or a PowerPoint.

But somehow he awakened something in me that got me interested in history. I’ve never been the same since.

In fact, one of my favorite memories from high school was taking one of his American history tests. I felt sure that I got every one right. I was sure I even got the bonus right. But I got sick and missed the day, which happened to be a Friday, that he handed the tests back. I felt terrible. I spent a good amount of time that weekend going over the material in my head to make sure I had it all right. It didn’t even seem like it was school related. I was interested! Imagine that. It was like thinking about the NFL draft or playoffs or the bands I was interested in.

Later in college I had writing teachers, Mark Christensen and Susan Hauser, who just had us sit in circles and share our writing.


4. Pay for teacher performance

Issue. Recently, George Parker, head of the union and lead negotiator for the Washington, D.C. school district, where Michelle Rhee is offering teachers a unique opportunity: waive your tenure and you could double your salary ($120,000) or keep tenure and top out at $62,000.

Parker now admits that the time has come for pay for performance. But whose performance? I can teach my ass off and get less than half the class on track. Other times, like with the wonderful and talented kids in my College Comp classes, I could not do a thing and those kids and their scores would make me seem like a genius.

Is that accurate? Of course not.

I know when teachers from different districts have presented on the MN version of pay for performance, Q Comp, it was a farce. The pay for performance had nothing to do with student gains. It had more to do with professional development for the staff. But shouldn’t we do that anyway as professionals?


3. You can't teach writing if you don't hammer grammar.

Myth. Wait. I'll change that. Out right lie! You don’t become a better artist by knowing what chemicals comprise the paint nor do you become a better musician just because you know how to assemble or build your own instrument.

Give the kids all the grammar worksheets you want. They will never make them better writers. Ever.

I got one B in my English major in college. And I couldn’t tell you what a sentence fragment or an introductory adverb clause was. But I had voice and style and passion. That’s what writing teachers need to focus on.

Grammar gets hammered because it’s easy to teach. Plus, once a teacher masters grammar, it’s something you can hold over a kid’s head. It’s empowering. Just like the five-paragraph theme.

You can grade all the worksheets you want, but you aren’t making kids better writers unless they write.

Now you might get by with some grammar in context exercises. But get them writing. Not circling independent clauses and underlining subjects and predicates.

2. You have to be an a*&hole for the first few weeks of class.

A huge myth. Be genuine. If you’re an asshole, be true to yourself. If you’re not, be who you are. Kids will see right through that. Plus, if they genuinely enjoy coming to your class because you care and are passionate about what you do, students will see that and want to come to class and partake. It won’t always be easy and there will be times you have to put the smack down, so to speak, but you have to be true to who you are.

I’ll give you an example. I used to have trouble with a student. They were disrespectful in the hall and interrupted class and acted like a puke.

Instead of flying off the handle or running to administration to handle it, which would only escalate the situation, I ended up ignoring him and his behavior.

Then I noticed an awesome painting he had drawn. The next time he acted like a little shit, I asked him about it and if I could buy it for my classroom. For once, he stopped seeing me as whatever he had seen me as and we talked. I bought the painting and now he is civil, respectful, and nice. I didn’t buy it to get him off my back. It was an awesome painting. I took an interest in him and that changed everything.

Now he is working on an even larger painting to give to me.

Funny how that works. That would never have happened if I would have assholed him (a term our principal used for hardballing students)

1. Cell phones are the devil.

Epic myth.

They are here to stay and they are not going away. So if you can’t beat them why not join them?

Every student in my class has one. Think of all the information at their disposal. After all, they aren’t just phones. They are – for all intents are purposes – computers.

As one slideshow on technology I was watching observed, think of all a student could use Text messaging for - pop quizzes, spelling, polls, math and science experiments, book reports, peer tutoring, and class presentations.

Imagine, as the slideshow suggests, giving your class this assignment –

“Class, you’ve got 10 minutes to receive a text message from anyone outside of this school. Please find out these three things – First, what they had for breakfast. Second, what the weather is like where they are. Third, what was the last thing they purchased. Bonus points will be given for messages received from people in other countries . . . using languages other than English. Talk about acquiring useful data! This data could then be used in nearly any class . . . To teach a wide variety of essential skills: graphing data, food preparation, and predicting outcomes.”

And that is just the tip of the iceberg.

We might think it’s rude when students – or our kids- take out their cell phones to text while they’re talking. But they don’t think like that. Our parents maybe thought it was rude to eat in front of the TV instead of at the table. Maybe they thought it was rude to do any number of things. But times change.

Our kids and students are simply multi tasking.

Now, I don’t pretend to think that cell phones will be magic. They’ll be distracting. But we deal with dozens of distractions too.

Just wait until more and more teachers use cell phones as part of their every day lives. Just think of what could happen if you got the cell phone numbers for every student in your class. Then you could send out a mass text message – as many of our coaches do to their athletes – regarding assignments and due dates.

Personally, I would buy – if I were the God of education – a cell phone and iPod. Just think what they could do with an iPod. They could use iTunes to access iTunes U for a plethora of podcasts. By downloading certain podcasts, students could see what it’s like to sit in on an MIT lecture. They could listen to lecturers at Stanford. They could get videos from Missouri State on several disciplines (there are some very good lectures on ee cummings, Ernest Hemingway, and Robert Frost). And that is just using iTunes U, not to mention the other podcasts out there.

It’s gotten to the point where the old mantra, if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em comes into play.

I’m not saying have a free for all with cell phones. There can be rules and consequences, but there is so much power in those little cell phones that teachers would be foolish – especially if you’re in a small school where computer access is limited or nonexistent – not to take advantage of it.