Teacher Layoffs

My daughter sent me this article. It's about teacher layoffs. The title is: Why let senior teachers get a free pass during layoffs? From a soon to be new teacher it does make you wonder if you will ever be able to get a job let alone keep one. Interesting read, enjoy.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/04/29/navarrette.teachers.unions/?hpt=T2

Henry's Freedom Box A True Story from the Underground Railroad

Written by: Levine, Ellen Illustrated by: Kadir Nelson, 2007, Scholastic Press, New York.

Interest level: 3-5 Reading level: 2 Lexile: 380

Key words: underground railway, Henry Brown, slavery, Caldecott honor books

This book is based on the true story of a man named Henry "Box" Brown. Henry escaped slavery by mailing himself in a box to Philadelphia from Richmond, Virginia.

The text of this book is very mild and appropriate for younger grades. The feature that is the most impressive in this book are the illustrations. Kadir Nelson has done an amazing job and they are beautiful. It's no surprise that this book is a Caldecott Honor Book.

This book would be a great book to introduce young students to the Slavery and the Underground Railway. The text isn't too explicit for young students but has enough information that it would be a great springboard for discussions about slavery. I found a great integrated lesson plan for this book. www.state.lib.la.us/empowerlibrary/henrys%20freedom%20box.doc

Here are some of the ideas:

Science: Astronomy. Talk about the role of constellations and the underground railway.

Art: Discuss lithographs.

Language Arts: Write a story about what you think happened next to Henry.

Though the text isn't very exciting the pictures make up for it. I think this book is beautiful and would be a good addition to a discussion about slavery or the underground railway.

Pink and Say

Polacco, Patricia, Pink and Say, 1994, Philomel Books, New York.

Interest level: 3-5 Reading level: 5 Lexile: 590

Keywords: Civil War, friendship, prejudice, slavery, Abraham Lincoln, marauders, family history, biography

This book is about two young union soldiers, Pinkus Aylee (Pink) and Sheldon Curtis (Say). Say is injured in battle and left for dead. Pink finds Say and carries him home to be nursed back to health by Pink's mother. After Pink's mother is killed by marauders, Pink and Say try to return to the Union Army. Unfortunately, they are captured and Pink is killed. Say survives the war and the story is told by Patricia Polacco, Say's great-granddaughter.

This is an amazing story. It will require some practice to read it aloud without crying. I have not mastered it yet, even though I've read it several times. Patrica Polacco is my favorite children's author because she is able to draw you into a story and help you feel the feelings of the characters. You feel like you know the characters; you cry when Pink's mother is killed and feel Say's sadness when he is separated from his friend. You mean it when you vow to never forget Pinkus Aylee. In some tiny way you feel some of the feelings of those who experienced the sadness and injustices of the Civil War. You feel changed because of reading this book. It is unusual for a picture book to carry this kind of weight but Polacco is able to weave her magic in just 47 pages.

In addition to the obvious use of this book to introduce and study the Civil War, it would be great to incorporate it's use into language arts. A great example would be for students to research a family story about an event in their family history. Or they could talk to an older person about where they were during a historical event. Some ideas may be JFK's assassination, going to the moon, September 11th, etc. Any of these memories would make great writing material. This book is also a good example of the biography genre.

One concern some may have with this book is it is sad. The subjects of war, death, prejudice etc. are all very heavy and a teacher would need to be careful when using this book. Lots of discussion and support for the students as they process would be necessary as they process this book. It is probably best used for upper elementary though I found examples on the web of teachers using it in third grade. I also think this book could be used for middle school grades. Read it before you decide not to use it because Patricia does a great job introducing these topics without too much emotion or drama.

This is a great book, written by a great author.

Geography Web-site

This is my third web-site. I just couldn't narrow it down to two. :) This web-site is about learning Geography. This web-site made my perceived IQ score drop considerably. I think that part of cultural literacy is knowing where in the world a place is located. I think the first step to understanding another culture is to know where they live. I am book marking this site because I was so unhappy with my score in world geography. Hope you do better than I did. :0 Brenda

http://www.mentalfloss.com/geographyzone/

Website

I think a lot of youth today do not understand how business works. I was really excited to find this game on disney's website called "Hot Shot Business". The kids can play a game that takes them through the steps of opening and operating a business. It would be great for 5th grades on up. It wasn't as easy as you would expect. My business failed miserably. I could see kids playing this at home as well as school. Give it a try! Brenda

http://disney.go.com/dxd/index.html?channel=108602#/disneygroup/hotshotbusiness/

Social Studies Blogs

I have spent some time this morning looking at my classmate's blogs. I am totally impressed and have enjoyed reading many posts. I wish I didn't have homework calling me so I could read all of the posts. I had commented on a couple of them earlier in the semester but today I commented on 5 more (Ryan, Neva, Jason, Mike, and Sherry). I wanted to leave comments on all of them but don't have time. The thought occurred to me that I couldn't find A.J.'s blog. Would love to read his too. :) Great work colleagues! Loved your blogs. Brenda

What I did with my time....

Here is my accounting of how I used my time Tuesday night. After tutoring for my reading diagnosis and intervention class I decided to return to campus to work on my lit. analysis and presentation. I decided I would get more done if I went back to the campus instead of going home. However, first I took a detour to Barnes and Noble and bought a new book to write about. I just wasn't happy with the ones I'd found in the BSU library. The book I bought is beautiful and I'm excited to write about it. Then I went to the Ada Community library (my favorite library, yes, I am nerdy enough to have a favorite library) to pick up a book I'd requested by Patricia Polacco. She is my favorite children's author so I wanted to write about a book she had written. My book finding adventures killed quite a bit of time but I LOVE children's literature and wouldn't have been happy writing about books I didn't connect with. Next I headed back to campus. I spent the rest of my evening researching for my part of our presentation and my lit. analysis. After not finding much information on the book I was going to write about, I am re-thinking it and might write about one of the books I found last night. Feeling a little panicked about changing plans mid-stream so hopefully it will work out.

Respect for our profession

I thought this article was interesting after our discussion last week. This is the kind of lack of professionalism that shoots teachers in the foot. More interesting than the article were the comments posted by people at the bottom. Check it out. Brenda

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100412/ap_on_re_us/us_nj_governor_union_memo

School Funding

On the way home from my daughter-in-laws graduation I heard a commercial on the radio. This commercial was about a movement in Idaho called "raise your hand". They feel that no cut backs should be made in education. They are angry that the legislature cut funding from schools. I went to their web-site. Every one of their ideas was to increase taxes. I especially liked the one to do away with the grocery tax credit. (the one that helps low income families?) Or how about increasing sales tax by a penny? Both of these will hurt Idaho families who are already struggling. Did you know that 51% of the state budget goes to paying for Idaho schools? Where do people think the state revenues come from? To get income taxes people have to be employed. We need to put our energy into attracting jobs to the state and keeping the jobs we have. The other thing we need to remember is other important state organizations have been impacted by the budget cuts, education isn't the only place that is suffering. I have a good friend who worked for the juvenile detention system. He is highly educated (Phd.), had a very important job, worked hard, had been with the state for about 10 years, etc. His job was cut last year. I think we can all agree that juvenile detention is pretty important. This man was highly qualified for the job and had done a great job for the state. However, because of budget cuts his job was eliminated. These are the realities of our times. The reality is that a lot of people are suffering right now. Though my husband doesn't work for the state, his company has let go 50% of their work force in the last 2 years. He currently does the work that was done by three people in the past. My point is that everyone is struggling; private and public sector.

Instead of acting like these terrible people are trying to hurt kids, we need to be working with them to find ways to cut costs, avoid waste, and generate more income for the state. There is too much finger pointing and blame. Educators are smart people and we need to join the discussion; find innovative ways to help children. Show we are aware of where state revenues come from, volunteer ways to save money, encourage efforts to create jobs in Idaho.

I am not exempt from the stress of cutting spending to education. I don't think it should be the first thing legislators do. However, if they have exhausted other avenues then I know they will have to pull some funds from education. I don't like this and am sickened that it will probably keep me from getting a job. The thought of working at Walmart or McDonalds to pay my student loans off makes me literally sick to my stomach. I have wanted to be a teacher for so long and it breaks my heart that there is a good possibility that I will graduate and not be able to get a job.

Teacher's Union

Teacher's unions need to get out of politics. Why does so much money go to backing political candidates and causes? The article in Newsweek is just another story about unions protecting teachers who are hurting children. How long are teachers going to put up with this? Why are we? Because we think the union will get us more money? Because we want the insurance they provide?

I have opted to join Northwest Professional Educators because I don't want any of my dues going to back political candidates or causes. (Regardless of party affiliation.) If I want to give money to a political party, candidate or cause, I will send them a check. For $25 a year for students, I have two million dollars worth of liability insurance while I student teach. For $16.50 a month after I become a teacher, I will have the same insurance and legal coverage. They also have grants for beginning teachers and a newsletter about issues in education. Another thing I like is, NWPE will not take a position on legislation regarding education unless 80% of their members support it. I recently got an email from them about the legislation in Idaho about early graduation asking my opinion. When they could not get an 80% consensus, they did not issue a statement in support of or against the measure. I liked that. Here's a quote from their website: "NWPE stays focused on what is best for students and those who place them as their highest priority."

Here's their website if you are interested: http://www.nwpe.org/

Just another option in case you feel like I do and don't want your union dues financing politician's or political causes you may or may not agree with.

Brenda

Thoughts on professionalism part 1

Our conversation last night in class about professionalism really resonated with me. Believe it or not, I had to hold myself back to keep from talking too much. I'd like to preface my comments in this blog with this disclaimer: my comments are not directed to anyone in class but are thoughts I've held for a long time. This will probably be my first installment on this subject. Here are just a couple of ideas I have about how we can change the way our profession is viewed.

1. Stop complaining about how we are perceived by the public. Sometimes this reminds me of a two year old stomping their foot and saying "I am important, I am important!" Of course we are important, we just don't need to keep telling ourselves and others. I think we need to quit seeking the approval of others. Do our job, do it well and quit complaining. Some people will never change their minds about how they view teachers so quit stomping your feet.

2. Quit talking about teacher pay all the time. We all knew what teachers made when we started going to school, why do we continuously complain about it? Don't get me wrong, I think there are times and places for this discussion, it just feels like it's all we talk about. It's time to show that teachers deserve better pay, rather than complaining. Wouldn't it change the discussion if we could refer to specific results and tie that to pay increases. Like it or not, our society is results driven. We need to show results in connection to pay increases. When I see how many people are joining the teaching profession from other career fields, I wonder if the low teacher pay resonates anymore with the general public.

3. Be realistic about your role. Sometimes teachers put themselves on pedestals, like some kind of savior of children. I think we over romanticize the profession sometimes. Sorry, but I don't think teaching is a life or death profession like a brain surgeon. Please don't misunderstand me, I'm not saying teachers don't have a huge impact on lives; they do. However, I have survived even after having a couple TERRIBLE elementary teachers. Their mistakes could be classified as teacher malpractice. Even with that, I will graduate from college. If a brain surgeon made a mistake of the same degree, I would be dead.

4. Stop complaining about the required tests to become a teacher. Every profession has to pass tests. I don't think we should give the impression that we are afraid of them or they are irrelevant. I think some evidence of mastery of core content knowledge is reasonable if you are expected to teach these subjects. I don't want to give the impression that I am a fan of the Praxis. I don't think a good score on the Praxis means you will be a good teacher any more than a good score on the CPA test means you will be a good accountant. It does mean that some minimum standard has been met. I have yet to have someone tell me, "I studied my heart out for that test and didn't pass it." More often, the comment I hear is, "I didn't study at all and I passed it."

That's probably enough for my first entry on professionalism. I will do another blog on the union. :)

Brenda