Championing for Students Who Fall in the Cracks

Back to school is a busy time for me: classroom set-up, lesson planning, copying, new unhappy parents...

I am a teacher and a parent in the United States. I was going through teacher training as changes were already made and being implemented in the fields of Standardized Testing and Special Education. I held some strong beliefs back then about both and I still have them now, even as I've watched the two areas merge.

The parent I talked to held to the belief that students were put into Special Education to fill a 'quota' so the school could get their 'money' from the government. This father was right, however, the student in question wasn't attending a Title I school. I didn't talk about this fact, go into any politics, rather, my focus was on the student.

His concern was valid for his child, that his child was placed, or tracked, into the wrong 'track' for him.

This is what I was championing for back in college. This is what I would grow combative over, what made my heart both bleed and rage; students who fall through the cracks and get left behind in a system that doesn't cater to the 'in-betweens'.

In this case, the student and his dedicated family were not given the chance to learn what the skills he needs to succeed. They were told the school was doing what was best and the student was thriving and doing well. Sure, when you don't challenge a student to their full potential and he picks up on everything easily because he's not 'dumb', then he will thrive. He will look like a star.

But as he grows up, he will not be given the same opportunities once he is 'tracked' into a low achieving education system. The barriers that existed when he was small do not exist now that he is older. The excuses they used to place him are no longer valid. It's time for him to fly.

As a teacher, I have an obligation to push my students, to teach them as much as they can learn. I have an obligation to challenge myself to learn more to stay ahead of them.

I feel this is my calling, this role, to champion for the little guys who get stuck in the cracks. I'm donning my armor and getting ready for this fight. It might take 3 years to get him on 'track', but it will be worth it.

Parents Vs. Teacher: Discipline, How Do We Fix This?

As a teacher, you need parents to back you up. 

When you are trying to teach your student, their child, to follow directions and not back talk, roll their eyes, or cause a disruption, you need the parent to understand the situation and support the actions of the teacher to correct the student's behavior.

When this doesn't happen and the parents are upset at how things are handled with their child, a rift forms between the school from the administration level, who will defend the teacher, to the student's level, who comes to school with snarky remarks about how they were rewarded at home and their parents hate the teacher or school.

The student may learn to threaten the teacher with their parents' intrusion, misbehave in a way to get the administrator's attention either as a way to 'punish' the teacher, or as a way to simply get attention and have a story to tell the parents at home.

The bottom line is doing what is best for the student. The student cannot back talk adults. The student cannot go to the administration office every time they feel like it, because the teacher is 'driving them crazy'. There are rules. Those rules promote a respect-filled classroom and lead to a respect-filled adulthood for any boss in any future career.

What should the teacher do?

1. Promote positive discipline strategies. Get your administration on board, share your concerns, have a plan in place, then begin implementing a reward system. You may already have one, but it needs changed for this one student. Be visual, collect concrete data, reward with tangible objects. Give stickers, check marks that collect to earn a prize, behavior dollars, whatever the student and parent can see. If the student doesn't earn a reward, be specific as to why. Tell the student exactly what you expect. "You did not complete your work. I cannot give you a sticker for completing your work. I do like how you kept trying!"

2. Don't begin a bargaining war. "If you just do one more, then you can get a reward." Once you set the guidelines you HAVE to follow them.

3. Collect Data. Collect data on missed homework, behavior, or the behaviors specific to the parent's concerns. If Johnny or Susie did not get a sticker for three periods in a row, write down why and keep this data close at hand. If the parent wants to see their child's behavior chart data, show them. If a child has a meltdown, write out a description of the entire event. If possible, as it is happening with every word and every action, but if not, try to write down an account as soon as possible so it is fresh in your mind.

What Can Parents Do?

1. Establish clear communication with the teacher. Get all sides of the story. Perhaps the child is playing both sides of the field. Maybe the teacher is not using an effective strategy. Email the teacher frequently. Ask for a behavior chart to go home. Call, write, or even text. Programs like Engrade have an email feature built in, so when you check your child's grades, you can send a note to the teacher.

2. Give suggestions for effective strategies. You know your child, Ask for data, ask for a reward system. Work with the teacher to resolve issues. You can't expect miracles, but you can expect informed changes to be made.

3. Ask your child to give you specific examples. If all they can say is 'the teacher drives me crazy' or 'the teacher hates me', get more information. Was the child misbehaving? Did they get caught when a friend actually started it? Were they paying attention to the lesson? Did they talk back? What was actually said? Document it in an email query. Get to the bottom of it.

But as a teacher, please parents, if your child says they are upset because they didn't earn a reward, don't go out and buy that reward for them. Pacifying children this way reinforces their misbehavior at school and undermines the teacher's work. The reward is no longer appealing and therefore the student has no reason to behave in class.

Good Articles:
EverydayLife
ChicagoNow



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Media Literacy: Taking Education by Storm

There seems to be a new educational subject out there, which I find very relevant to today's children, especially teens who are learning Life Skills. It's called Media Literacy.

By looking at advertising critically, students begin to understand how the media oppresses certain groups, convinces people to purchase certain products, and influences culture. Lesson

I remember discussing advertising when I was in middle school/high school and how they exaggerate to convince you to buy something. They want to sell you on a product so they use gimmicks, cuteness, arousal, enticement, celebrities, bad math, and skewed graphics or camera angles and great lighting to capture your attention.

Media Literacy takes this education to a completely new level. What if we can bridge math, science, reading informational text, and real life through media? We can. Children are exposed to media constantly and they are lied to. They need to learn to 'deconstruct' the messages and read between the lines.

Reading between the lines, inferring, and doing their own research seems to be what this new educational subject is about. This is a skill many new adults lack. How can we tell what is true and what is a lie?

Back to integrating more educational opportunities; Ask students how much media they take in, then come with different ways to graph the data; investigate the science of appealing to people's emotions; study the copy writing and logos and have students design their own. Get out some magazines and have them examine ads in the pages. You could do a collage with themes, or put the ad on a larger piece of paper and diagram it around the picture.

I think I need to plan some lessons with my students and my children!

Lessons: NCTE



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I'll Just Put These Here: Random Links

When I browse the internet, I often end up with a bunch of tabs open for sites that I want to share with others, remember for later, or maybe write something about them in a blog post or story.

I can't leave them up for long because Windows 7 HATES to sit and hold them.

One option is to bookmark them all, but without folders labeled by category, I will never want to slog through the list and take care of them. They will sit forever unused.

Then, inspiration strikes. I will post them in a blog for myself and others.

While reading a blog full of random links is not my cup of tea, and I feel really hypocritical for doing it, I am going to have to change my thinking from slogging through a list to creative journaling. After all, this link dump is pretty much a history of my brain's entertainment and changing focus. It's a snapshot of my current interest. What better place than a blog for link dumping?

Ugh. The idea makes me frown, but, here goes:

Education:
http://www.collective-evolution.com/2014/01/07/this-is-what-happens-when-a-kid-leaves-traditional-education/

This is really making me regret two things: 1. that I didn't homeschool when I wanted to, and 2. that I don't live in an area rich in experiences like this kid has, as well as rich in my own children's interests.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2014/11/14/teacher-to-parents-about-that-kid-the-one-who-hits-disrupts-and-influences-your-kid/

This post has been circling social media and is a letter from a teacher to parents to address the questions they have about bullying. It also addresses the extreme confidentiality that governs schools and daycares alike. It reminds me that I cannot tell work stories to anybody, nor trust anybody to maintain confidentiality.

Art:
http://www.thisiscolossal.com/2013/12/jeeyong-lee-dreamscapes/
If you have a passion for creative pursuits, do it. This motivates me to drop everything and do what I love. Though I can't do that and survive at this time. Sadface.

http://marcusashley.com/artists/rob-gonsalves
This link was shared with me by a friend who bought a calendar of these works. As he points out, many of them can be inspiring for a story. (Hey ficlatté dot com, can we have photo challenge yet?)

Culture:
My youngest is nearly at the age where someone quashes his belief in Santa, so this:
http://thewhoot.com.au/whoot-news/crafty-corner/santa-letter

The Autopsy is out on Robin Williams. I know this is a morbid switch from Santa, but mental health is kind of an interest of mind. I mean, I work with disabled kids and I see a lot of different mental health issues. I have lots of friends with mental health issues. It fascinates me. The brain is an amazing organ. Awareness and change in perception is key to understanding.
http://www.salon.com/2014/11/13/autopsy_robin_williams_had_lewy_body_dementia/


Goals:
I want to bake Christmas cookies!
I'm getting links from here: http://kidsactivitiesblog.com/63665/christmas-cookies-intro to recipes.


After I eat them, I need to do these bodyweight exercises:
http://www.dailyhiit.com/hiit-blog/hiit-workout/kickass-bodyweight-series-full-body/

Healthy Cookies so I feel less guilty:
http://www.onehundreddollarsamonth.com/easy-cookie-recipes-chocolate-chip-cookies-with-almonds-cranberries-and-coconut/

http://kidsactivitiesblog.com/60049/2-ingredient-banana-cookies-neither-sugar

http://www.superhealthykids.com/no-bake-cashew-cookies/

http://thesmoothielover.com/healthy-avocado-chocolate-cookies/


You can comment your fave recipes if you want, or even links to your recent interests. Can't say I will read them all... but I will try!
Oh, and I will be thinking about them from my indoor inflatable spa while it snows outside!

Autism- and A Book Review

All the work we have done, all the tricks I have learned to do my job so that my student can function as 'normally' as possible in a general education setting have not gotten me into his head quite like the book I just finished reading.

Wow.

It's simple, heartwrenching, and from the point of view of a girl with Asperger's. (If you didn't know, Asperger's is on the Autism spectrum.) She shares similar traits with my student. For instance, abstract concepts are more difficult for them both to understand. They both have odd behaviors not acceptable in public. While their behaviors are odd to us, they clearly come from a need inside them that we can't even begin to associate and draw parallels to triggers in their lives or environment. They both have unique skills that they excel at.

In MOCKINGBIRD, Caitlin thinks the world revolves around her. She learns about empathy, manners, finesse, and closure; all very difficult things for an autistic child to grasp. Reading this book brought clairvoyance and understanding of the way my student's mind is wired. Things are literal. The world is a place of only his feelings. Sometimes it's more than too just loud, too colorful, too stimulating, and the only release is to return to the comfortable places that make sense.

Katheryn Erskine paints a vivid picture of grief, the stresses of childhood, and the ways society behaves towards special needs. Every character is believable. We all can relate to the feeling of needing something and not knowing how to get it. Advice abounds, but like many times in the book, we just don't 'Get It', so we can't follow any of the advice.

This book is a quick read, but don't let that fool you. Your heart will go out to Caitlin and you'll see others in a different light after experiencing this story.

Yes, I said experience.


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Your Brain is A Muscle Too

Day 20: How Important You Think Education Is


I'm a teacher. I am a college graduate. I want to go back to college to better myself. I think education is pretty darn important.


Hours a week are spent teaching my kids at home, other kids when I sub, and myself on the internet. Learning constantly is what life is about, even if the knowledge is how sharp the coffee table corner is compared to your shin.


We should challenge ourselves daily. I think if we don't, we get very bored. Hobbies and jobs do that, they challenge us (not bore us, you sillies). Problem solving, hand-eye coordination, transfer of skills, muscle memory, short term memory, and other skills can be developed. Work out your brain!


We all know people we think are blundering idiots. Don't be one of them. There was a study that showed that you can continue to increase your I.Q. into your old age. If you give up and stop learning, you are selling yourself short and probably missing out on opportunities.


READ READ READ, write, do crosswords, knit, golf, keep working, DIY some projects, practice, READ, and keep your body healthy. :)





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Thoughts on Education, Child Development, Homeschooling, and the Future

Having watched various RSA Animate videos on youtube recently about education, motivation, and empathy, I have been thinking about my own children and their future. It started with Ken Robinson, whom I have heard speak before. I like what he has to say and this video is awesome! From there you can watch the other videos.

The point is this: it got me thinking about my children, especially my oldest son and his heartfelt desire to be homeschooled.
Now, take this desire with a grain of salt; the grain that he thinks if he stays home, he will be closer to his video games and legos and that the proximity carries the promise of opportunity to play with them.

So I ask myself the big question: What is he getting out of school?

Based on the videos, which are extremely accurate, kids today have short attention spans and spend most of their time in games where they are active participants in the world. Kids play. They WANT to be ACTIVE.

Real life example in my own life: My youngest loves to use the vacuum. He likes to push the big red button and use the hose to suck up the cereal he spilled on my carpet. He is learning to cleanup after himself and enjoy doing it. I reward him with hugs and attention and I get a clean floor! Win, win!

My son comes home with his brain fried. He wants to play. He doesn't want to do his homework, all pen and paper work by the way, he wants a snack and a game. All day he has been told to sit down and be quiet. Don't fidget. Speak when I tell you to. Stay in your seat. Pay attention to me talking at the front. Answer my questions. Write this down. It's passive learning.

And I substitute! I KNOW his curriculum as well as how hard it is to get 25 students to all do what you want them to do! 80% of my subbing days are spent talking, just like a regular teacher. 80% of the day the children are expected to listen to me. They are also mostly in a large group setting. They are asked to perform individually. With pencil and paper. Quietly.


Is there anything wrong with this? Yes and no.

No, it's not wrong to ask children to learn to sit quietly and pay attention. But some jobs in the future will not ask the worker to simply sit and fill out papers. Some do, sure, but what do we want in our workers of the future? Ingenuity, cooperation, responsibility, communication skills. Ingenuity is frowned upon the most in schools unless they are doing a project. Ingenuity takes divergent thinking. It is coming up more and more as the most important skill.

From the video, kindergarteners are geniuses at divergent thinking. That is something we grow out of in the school system, but is highly valued in characters like Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Edison. My little guy is closer to Ben Franklin at his young age than my older son and certainly closer than I am!

Yes, it is wrong to ONLY ask that they learn to regurgitate information for 12 years. It's all 'teaching to the test'. I think about my own education, and think about yours; raise your hand if you memorized information for the test that day and later forgot it?
Certainly we cannot all remember EVERYTHING of every day, we NEED to forget some things. And we all have strengths in certain areas, intelligences they are called. But most kids, some as young as 9 or 10, already understand and ask this question: "Why do I need to know this? I will never use this in my life!" True also, we cannot know what we will need to know for the future, BUT we re-learn things all the time. "Oh yeah, I forgot that arsenic and phosphorous were chemical cousins." (Lake Mono in recent news)


Many students feel pushed ahead through school, too. What if they were allowed to learn at their own pace? Some would be in accelerated maths and low reading. Is that a crime? (I teach special ed classes too, and this is indeed made into a way to ostracize the peer in the current system. We do a LOT of damage control. It is beginning to be seen as a help instead of a mark of stupidity.) They would feel comfortable and progress at a rate that makes them feel competent. Hey, isn't this what a one-room school house used to do?

What would happen if you graduated with a transcript at 18 instead of a diploma? I'm not talking special ed where you get a certificate of completion, no, I'm talking revolutionize the system. What if you still needed to pass certain criteria, no matter what age, to get a level of a diploma? Level 1, Core 40 basic skills, Level 2, Advanced Skills, etc. With that transcript-style or leveled style diploma, you could get into levels of college, or jobs, or still take the SAT if you wanted. (*ideas swarm my head*)

Does my son feel pushed ahead? Well, he is succeeding academically, but he is not flourishing. There is no smile on his face when he gets an A. He shrugs it off. He did it, it was easy, let's move on, can he play a video game now? When he is reprimanded for a careless error, "you forgot your s on shows!" he feels stupid and the lecture about going back to ensure quality work is lost on him. He has already shut down. Punishing his mistakes with a big red X doesn't teach him anything positive. Yes, we can learn from our failures, but you never repeat the same test over in school so you can never fix the errors and learn from them! My son has learned this. So I made a mistake, I can't fix it, it's in the past, why look at it again? Then we expect them to build on these skills! (I had innovative teachers in high school that let you fix your errors and re-submit a test, and yes they were favorite teachers of the students.)

Why is tutoring such a big money maker? It's on their level, uses small groups, and gives extra practice for failed questions. It's focused on the individual. Skills are mastered, not learned to pass a test and move on. I have worked for 2 different tutoring companies. I know what I'm talking about.

Homeschooling is basically tutoring your own kids. I could do that. Special Ed teaching is basically meeting the child where he or she is and building the skills up. And doing it by creating your own resources!

On a basic level, it's all about reward and punishment: Life, what motivates us to live it, what motivates us to learn and to excel.

What does school reward?

• Photographic memory
• Passivity
• Regurgitation
• Pen and Paper work
• Individual success
• Obedience
• Conformity
• Responsibility
• Being average or above your 'grade level'

What does school punish?

• Creativity (to a point, i mean it puts creativity in a box, a playpen)
  
• Inattention
• Learning by moving or talking
• Low Comprehension, and if you don't get it the first time..

What Does Job Industry Want in Workers?

• Ingenuity (new ideas make money)
• Cooperation (even our robots need to be courteous)
• Obedience (until you are your own boss)
• Basic Skills (math and reading)
• Grasp of Language/Grammar for communication
• Responsibility
• Being on time
• Technical skills (these are changing too)
  

(Can you think of more?)

Future jobs will be more computerized, or more people will become self-employed or open small businesses in unique areas to fill unique markets and niches. If we have cookie-cutter kids with cookie-cutter educations, and CUT cookie-cutter jobs like manufacturing and offices and banking and teaching, where will they go? Our kids know this. Give them credit. Our schools are training them for jobs that aren't there.

Oh, college you say? Inflated prices, needing more training and education to stand above the crowd carrying the same degree, and they have to want to go to college and incur that debt. Many kids hate school, you think they want to go to college? It doesn't look so glamorous these days.

Many jobs don't require a degree, just passion.

Can I do better at home? Probably not. I was educated in this system and I was trained in an evolutionary cooperative-learning based system in college that I have yet to see encouraged in public schools. That's why I was so frustrated when I graduated. Schools were not like the college classes said they would be!! Nothing had changed, but me. Homeschooling, however, is the only option to combat the forces that be. (Some areas have charter schools or trade schools or arts schools, where you can enroll your kid in the school they are best intellectually suited to, but not here.)

I'll have to learn how to teach TO my kids instead of AT my kids if I homeschool. I have to get back into that tutor mode and be creative. (Creative? did I just say creative? doesn't that take ingenuity? Where did I learn that? I didn't. I was born with it.)

Teaching is like throwing a ball at the class. It bounces off the heads of some kids, some catch it and hold it and look at it and some throw it back. Some throw it back because they saw others throw it and think that's what they should do, too. And a few take that ball and make it into something new.

We reward those that throw it back, and frown on those that changed the ball, because they aren't supposed to do that until they have earned their own ball. We punish those that never catch it. Sometimes we help them, but it takes so long that we both give up.

Public school is cheaper (especially if you get free lunch and textbooks) and provides children field trips and guest speakers and social stimulus. But it's also the easy way and the lazy way.
Homeschooling is hard and expensive. There are no set lessons pre-made for you for the whole year (unless you buy workbooks $$$), nor group discounts and big school buses to take you places for a few dollars (unless you find or create a group in your area, but it will still cost more than school prices). Books are only free at the library (even lessons, but there's gas cost to drive there). And your children only socially interact with each other, unless you find out where homeschool groups meet in your area or enroll your kids in sports ($$$). Plus you have to have one income, but if you can swing it, and your child will thrive, flourish, and excel as a human being, then the dividends outweigh the cost of investment.

Don't we say to invest in ourselves, in our future?

So will I be homeschooling my kids or will I be lazy and assume a broken system can do it just fine for me?

I don't know. I hope things change. Perhaps I homeschool until my children need high school courses taught in Trades or some area I can't teach them nor find a viable source to do it for me (apprenticeships or skilled family or friends). Perhaps I leave them in school and see what happens.

I will be keeping a close eye on education, my children, my job situation, and our lives. The choice is what's best for our family, ultimately.



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