Middle School & Adolescence....

2 words that send shivers down the spines of parents and teachers alike.

From a middle school teacher's perspective, all those shivers are unnecessary. Making the most of your child's middle school years is quite simple: Send them to boarding school and change your phone number, email address and any other means of contact.

Seriously? Middle schoolers are a difficult crew to navigate with at times, but these years can also mark some of the best times you will spend with your child. Caught in the balance between childhood and adulthood, these kids are searching for their identity, looking for support, help, and most of all, unconditional love and acceptance.

The first step to successful navigation through the storm is flexibility. Middle schoolers need and crave rules, but need to feel as if they have a say in these rules. Be ready to negotiate, change, and bend the rules to fit the circumstances. That doesn't mean letting go of your family values and ideals, or letting your teen run the show. Just be ready to listen, rethink and reconsider how rules are enforced. If school night bedtime is normally 9, but there is some MUST BE WATCHED show in tonight until 10, negotiate - You may stay up and watch the show, but you must still get yourself up and ready for school on time. If you aren't ready when the bus comes, no TV for a week. (or whatever consequence you choose) Put the power in the teen's hands.

The next step is teaching responsibility. When your child starts middle school, you need to buy them 2 items: an alarm clock and a laundry basket, and teach them to use both. Don't rush to rescue them when they don't get up on time. Skipping breakfast to catch the bus, wearing dirty clothes to school, will not kill them! However, it might teach them to become more responsible. Helping them learning to manage their time, learning to think ahead, will not only take the getting them up and doing their laundry responsibility from your already busy life, it will ultimately help your teen when they are out on their own.

The last key to success ties in with the last one. While you are teaching responsibility, teach your child that failure might be an option. Don't be a helicopter parent, swooping in to drive them back to school to get a forgotten book every day, calling or writing the teacher to get an extension on a project, or finishing homework for your child. Middle school is about building good habits. Have clear cut expectations about work completion, grades, behavior and effort, along with clearly outlined consequences when those expectations are not met. Then, let your child take the lead, either meeting the expectations or not. It is difficult to step back and let them fail, but in the grand scheme of life and school, the middle grades are the time to let them flounder and learn to deal with the consequences.

Middle schoolers aren't just big KIDS and they aren't just littler high schoolers. They are unique creatures, interesting, intelligent, and on the cusp of adulthood. With a little creativity and perserverance on your part, you can make these the BEST years of their lives.

Nature versus Nurture

My granddaughter, Rylie, is 14 ½ months old now. I spend as much time with her as possible. Of course, I think she is the cutest, smartest, sweetest, most perfectest little girl ever to walk the planet.

But watching her grow and learn makes me realize the many disadvantages students come to school with. Rylie has someone constantly at her beck and call, teaching her about her world, helping her grow and learn.

We chart Rylie's progress on those milestone charts you can find online or in any baby box, highlighting her accomplishments one by one, leap by leap. At 14 1/2 months, her milestone chart for babies 12-18 months is almost completely highlighted. While I would like to attribute that exceptional ability to the genes she inherited from me, I am quite certain these milestone are flying by quickly more because of the way she is being raised than by anything inherent in her DNA.

Granted, some children are born with some learning difficulty, something went wrong somewhere along the way. But for the average normal baby, if they were raised in a rich environment, I truly think they could all soar.

Today was just another Rylie day, but all the things she saw and learned today were soaked up in the magical sponge of her brain, stored there for the next learning experience she can tag with the same information.

All parents need to be made aware of the importance of experiences for their children. It isn't about money, or education, it is about time and effort.

The picture of Rylie above shows her at Tractor Supply Company this spring when the baby chicks arrived. She was mesmerized by the soft fluffy chirpy balls that had scratchy claws and sharp beaks. Letting her kneel there and see them, picking them up for her to touch, patiently waiting for her to be done soaking up all that experience, all that cost nothing.

Today, Rylie went to visit her newborn cousin for the first time. Rylie's mom and I went to visit, taking her along, like we do no matter where we go. Knowing a 14 month old would get bored in the hospital room quickly, first her mom went to visit the new baby on her own while Rylie and I wandered the hospital. Other than the yogurt I bought her in the cafeteria, the experience was completely free. But in the hour's time, we touch the rock and brick walls, rubbed the smooth paint, the textured wallpaper, played in the water cascading down the fountain, sniffed the fake flowers, the scented candles, looked at the myriad of paintings and photographs adorning the walls, discovered automatic doors, perused the gift shop through the windows, watched an electrician fixing the wiring, and learned that Rylie CAN open the bathroom door all by herself, regardless of what Grandma is doing at the moment.

Rylie goes for walks in the woods, touches trees, leaves and dirt, listens to birds sing in the trees, watches them fly above, tosses rocks into rivers and lakes, lays down to watch ants crawl by. She 'reads' labels in the grocery store, gazes longingly at fish in the aquariums at Walmart, tries in shoes in every store that has them. She walks in my yard and sniffs (and picks...) flowers. She reads books with everyone in her life, most of them bought at garage sales for 25 cents each. Just from books, she can identify an amazing amount of things she has never encountered in real life. She goes and does, and learns along the way.

When Rylie goes to school, she will be ready, her brain full of information to start her formal education, linking together all those little bits and pieces she's already stored to the new information.

Somehow, we need to educate parents better. We need to convince them the importance of early experiences for their children. Don't plop them in front of the television. Don't hand them a video game. Take them outside. Take them to the library. Take them to the grocery store. Don't strap them in the seat. Let them walk and explore, look and learn. Take the time to be patient, let them do things on their own time, talk to them, explaining everything everywhere.

Nature versus nurture?? Nature wins, hands down. Rylie's 18 month chart is nearly complete because she has a mom and dad and grandparents who take the time to let her learn, now, while her little brain is the most absorbent it will ever be. And.... I am sure a tiny tad is because of the DNA from grandma too :)

Michigan schools are hurting like many in other places, no doubt. Last year, the state cut per pupil funding $165 per student, regardless where in the spectrum of state aid your school fell. This cut was devastating to every district.

Now, it looks as if districts will get a raise for the upcoming school year.

Woohoo, let’s celebrate.

Oh… wait… they are giving us back $11 per student. No, that is not a typo. ELEVEN dollars PER STUDENT.

There are many ways to look at this generous gift. For my district, our student population of just under 900 students, this generosity will grant us nearly $9900. Wow… the possibilities of what to do with that much money are endless. Transportation costs are just under $3000 a day, so we can keep those busses on the road for 3 days! Or, we can fund a third of a beginning teacher’s wages (not benefits, just wages).

If we look at this gift per student, it breaks down to just over 6 cents per day per student. I CAN afford to give each student a pencil every day after all!

Or maybe, I can pool the $11 per student for the ones I teach – about 55 7th graders and 25 8th graders next fall – and with that $880 I can…. Hmmm… math books are about $80 each so I guess I could buy 11 of those. It will be interesting trying to share those among all the kids, but we can be creative. If your last name starts with A – L, you get a book to take home on Monday and Wednesday, M-Z, you get them on Tuesday and Thursday. Friday will be reserved for those absent on their appointed day.

Oh, you say, textbooks are not needed with today’s technologies? OK, I will just use that money to buy new laptops. Hmmm… maybe I could get 2, or even 3 netbooks for that sum? Sharing 3 netbooks won’t be tough at all. Hopefully, the network itself is in decent enough shape to keep us going every day.

Forget the problem that they other teachers who have those students will want their own share of the bankroll. Forget the heat bill, the water bill, building improvements, art supplies, classroom furniture…

Again, it seems, we are destined to show the children of our country they are not a priority. As a nation, we’ve spent over $732 BILLION dollars on the war in Iraq. If you add the cost of the war in Afghanistan, we are WELL over $1 TRILLION. (http://costofwar.com/)

We spend over $113 billion dollars a year on illegal immigrants. (http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/illegal-immigration-a-113-billion-a-year-drain-on-us-taxpayers-97879144.html)

Even more outrageous, the city of Philadelphia cut their budget for fireworks from $3 million to $2.1 million this year. Oh how sad for them.... Boston spent $2.5 million, and DC won't even release the information on their show. (http://www.dailyfinance.com/story/the-most-extravagant-fireworks-displays-on-july-4th/19535837/)

Tiger Woods will earn $110 million this year, Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan and Kimi Raikkonen will all earn $45 million each. Even Dale Earnhardt will bring home a cool $34 million. (http://www.gkmen.com/sports/north-american-sports/who-are-highest-paid-athletes-2010190210)

And here I sit counting that $11 a kid.... rolling in the money.... counting my blessings...

“Be Real!

Color outside the lines.”

This quote is on my favorite t-shirt, one I purchased at the Crayola store on my one and only visit to the legendary Mall of America. Such a simple quote, but to me, it is all about teaching middle schoolers. Middle school kids live outside the line all the time, never quite fitting the mold of what their parents and teachers think they ought to be.

Middle school age kids are trying on their personalities, trying to figure out who they want to be. They want to fit in, desperately; at the same time, they want to be themselves, express their own personalities and make their own mark on the world.

It is a narrow path they walk and one which we, the adults in their lives, need to cultivate with care and patience. It is our obligation to help them discover their true indentities, their individual colors, and encourage them to indeed, COLOR OUTSIDE THE LINES!"

Be a best friend, tell the truth, and overuse I Love You

Go to work, do your best, don't outsmart your common sense

Never let your prayin knees get lazy

And love like crazy

from 'Love Like Crazy' by Lee Brice

What a great message for students, those words that echo in the chorus of this popular country song. It seems to me it covers everything we want for them to learn to be successful in their lives, every goal we as educators ought to have for our students.

Be a best friend:

If we can teach students to approach each person as if they were indeed their best friend, we could eliminate much of the hurt and bullying in schools today. Acceptance is the first step to peaceful interactions. Best friends tolerate each other's shortcoming, quirks and failures.

If each child had a best friend, someone they could turn to in their life, someone who loved them no matter what, think how much stronger our students would be as individuals. We need to work with students to find and forge strong bonds with each other.

Schools need to focus more on building the child's inner strengths, teaching them skills to cope and grow. In today's educational world, with budget cuts and teacher layoffs, too much focus on high stakes test scores, we are losing sight of what our true underlying responsibilites are to the future generations. It isn't all about book learning, it is about helping them grow into people we want to live next door to.

Tell the truth:

Teaching middle school is an adventure. Kids do dumb things ALL the time. I tell them that's OK. Just be honest. I can much easier deal with the kid who constantly screws up but fesses up, "Yes, Mrs. George, I was talking and I know I shouldn't have been." than the one who lies and denies. I am a clean slate person. Chances are, once I tell the student to stop whatever it is they are doing, the dirty deed has escaped my radar. All I want is for them to move on as well.

We live in a society where truth does not always trump. Our students watch their heros dodge the truth, watch politicians get caught in deceptive circles of untruths. In school, we must make sure to value truth above all else.

Overuse I love you:

Our students need to know we love them, unconditionally, whether they are smart, or popular, have the right clothes, come to school clean or dirty, have friends, follow the rules.... They need to have the assurance that we, their teachers, hold them special in our hearts, regardless.

If we can model that kind of unconditional love for our students, we can help them become more tolerant citizens, more kind to others, and more accepting of differences.

Go to work:

At least half of the determining factor in whether or not you will successful in any venture is do you actually show up, physically and mentally for the challenge. Students, and often parents, do not understand the importance of being in school day after day, arriving on time, and really BEING THERE while they are there. School is not a passive sport. Learning requires participation and hard work, and most of all, the physical presence of being there, in the classroom.

I am always at a loss when parents pull students out for extended periods of time for a family vacation. How can I possibly give them work to make up for all the class experiences they will miss while they are gone? Learning is about working with others, problem solving, trying, trying again, exploring, failing. That cannot be replicated on a worksheet copied and sent along to be completed in the backseat of a car ride.

Our students need to see us at work, day after day, doing what we should be, being "there" for them from the minute they walk in the door, until the final bell rings, accepting responsibility for all the hats we are expected to wear each day, doing it with a smile and an acceptance of our job.

Do your best:

I don't care if my students are "A" kids or "C" kids, as long as I know they have given their honest 100% effort in whatever they tackle, whatever I give them to try. It frustrates me to no end to see how willing many students are to settle for 'good enough' though. Instilling a sense of pride in students, a feeling of they have given it their all is tough sometimes.

One way I have discovered to help encourage 100% effort is to display student work. When they know their project will be hanging in the hall, students are more likely to care about the final product. It is all about an authentic audience.

Don't outsmart your common sense:

Teenagers have great instincts, about themselves, about others, and about life in general. We, as their role models, have to encourage them to go with their gut instinct, trust themselves to make the right decisions.

Often, we as adults are so centered on being the 'police force' to keep them out of trouble, we take away their responsibilty for learning to listen to that little voice of reason they all intuitively know is right. We spend so much time and effort keeping them under control, we force them to lost their own ability to think for themselves.

Never let your prayin' knees get lazy:

We are a nation founded on religious freedom, but we've come so far from that belief in our society, that schools are afraid to even mention a child's spirituality. If we embraced each different belief system, encouraged students to accept and learn about others, we could create a more accepting generation.

It isn't about teaching religion in schools, or even praying in school. It is about acknowledging the need for each child to have a belief system in place.

And love like crazy....

We need to give our students a zeal and zest for life, for learning, and for each other in our classrooms. We need to teach them to be spontaneous, unpredictable, flexible, boisterous, and to laugh. We need to love them all unconditionally, and teach them to love us back.

I don't expect students to give me gifts at the end of the year, but sometimes, they do. Often, it is a flower, sometimes a hanging basket, or another flower to plant among my other annuals. The best ones are the perennials though. I tuck these flowers into the bed along my patio, a hodgepodge of mismatched flowers from years gone by, a reminder to me of each student who gave me those gorgeous gifts years ago. My yard is full of flower beds, rock gardens, perennials spilling over ponds and streams, all my "pretties" I've planted and tended with care and thought. But somehow, the mismatched beds of student gifts are always my favorite.

This morning I woke up to a yard sparkling from fresh rain, and an incredible red lily opening in that bed. This plant was given to me 2 years ago by a young man, I am certain, picked out by his mom. Kyle was a memorable kid, funny, immature in that charming 7th grade way, smart. The kind of kid who drives you crazy at the time, but that you remember always having a smile on his face. He was always in the center of whatever goofiness was going on, but easy to rein back in. He was the kind of young man you knew was destined to do something innovative someday.

So this morning, I blog in thanks to Kyle and all the others who have given me those lasting gifts of beauty for my yard. I love to anticipate those blooms every year, remembering you and your classmates. Lilies here and there, an array of spectacular colors, a metal pink flower made in metals class by a group of girls, dianthus that spreads and spreads, various bulbs of early spring bloomers, thank you to all who've made my garden a memory of the job I love.

NOW.........Won't you all please come over and weed for me??

I’ve been thinking about money and school, and realistically, how would more money change my teaching, my classroom, and of course, ultimately, the learning of my students.

Some of the more miniscule items – paper, pencil, art supplies – really wouldn’t change anything other than the amount of money that comes from my own pocket. As a matter of fact, having an unlimited supply of materials might actually lead to making students more dependent on me supplying it, resulting in their own lack of independence and personal responsibility for coming to class prepared. Still, it would be great to not have to worry about assigning posters, or colored coded graphs, or expecting students to have index cards for note taking. Having all the materials available would allow for more flexibility in many ways.

The big stuff is where I see money making the biggest impact in my classroom. I would first buy new tables and chairs for my classroom instead of the mismatched, broken legged wobbly ones I have now. How sad is that?

Would that change how I teach and how my students learn? Maybe not… However, when students come to school in buildings that are out of date, it gives them a feeling that they are not valued in our society. They see the difference in other places they go and how decrepit the school building and its furnishing are, and they, albeit it unconsciously, understand the prioritizing of public funding and the many discrepancies.

If we could open school buildings that look inviting, with kid-friendly structures, large classrooms, fresh paint, adequate furnishings, students would not feel despair when they enter our halls.

In my own classroom, given money, I could create a learning environment more welcoming, with a variety of seating options. The hard plastic and metal chairs I have now hardly lend themselves to a comfortable resting spot for anyone for 60 minutes, much less for an active growing adolescent. I would give them beanbags, rocking chairs, and other more kid friendly choices. Not only would these be comfier seating choices, the constant interruption of them scraping across the floor would be eliminated.

Beyond the chairs and tables, my classroom could have a neater and tidier appearance, with matching bookcases, storage space in closed cupboards, white boards with plenty of markers and erasers and cleaner. Instead a conglomeration of mismatched homemade tables on which to put things, my room could look like a classroom with real furniture! My walls would be painted with stripes of bright colors, instead of the boring drab off-white.

I could have new laptops, with logical power sources, instead of crisscrossing extension cords and powerstrips, duct taped hither and thon. The laptops would ALL work, always! I could have a SmartBoard to share websites and notes with students. I could have some sort of student response system, to engage them electronically, each student responsible for giving answers, in a safe, non-threatening manner!

Nooks and crannies for reading, art projects, and other creative ventures would beckon students to their corners, intriguing minds to create and produce, think and innovate.

There would some sort of reliable temperature control, keeping us on an even keel, instead of the highs and lows from 55° to 95° we experience now.

I would create spots for student storage within the classroom, places to keep portfolios, supplies, and even personal belongings.

A comfortable place to view videos would be there as well, almost an actual media center, where students could curl up and watch the occasional video I show in luxury, instead of craning around the heads of other students, straining to hear the words from the cheap reject speakers.

All that sounds wonderful ….. but in actuality, would it change my teaching? Would it change the learning of my students? I’m not so sure. But it is kind of like winning the lottery. You always read that winners aren’t any happier once they’ve won the BIG BUCKS, as is often creates a new set of problems. But I always think, give ME those problems!

Give me the magical classroom budget, the perfect setting, and let me see if it COULD make an impact on student learning. Let me just give it a shot?

Outside the physical nature of my classroom, with more educational funding, I would create a learning environment where teachers have time to work together, create together, and support each other's endeavors. This time would be built into the actual school day.

Time for teachers to really look at student work and assess it, then provide feedback to students and parents would be built into the school schedule as well. I would eliminate multiple choice tests, and have teachers using more meaningful tools to analyze student progress.

I would create learning communities made up of teachers, adminstrators, and parents, all working together to design learning goals for students in our school. Then I would work to help students take these goals and chart their own course of study, finding ways to meet these goals.

I would have my school be a community center, offering after-school support, programs, academic support, athletic programs, food programs, medical care, whatever our student body needs. We would support the whole child, completely.

School would no longer be an 8-3 venture, but a lifestyle for our community........

Teacher Summer To Do List

Many people assume the best parts of being a teacher are June, July, and August. I will admit a sense of euphoria when school lets out, a release of tension, a settling in of a relaxed feeling. Then the reality of being a teacher sets in with summer projects, classes, and other professional development endeavors.

Spread across my dining room table, gracing a spot it will stay most of the summer, sits my mountain of school work. One pile is Algebra 1 books, CD’s and other support materials. These all beckon to me, reminding me I am teaching this class for the first time, and should probably hone up on my own skills. Another pile is for my 7th grade social studies class, the class that always seems to get pushed to the back burner, and I end up resorting to reading the chapters in the textbook and copying worksheets, because time is too short to plan another project, write another rubric, research another current events issue. Summer gives me a chance to delve into the curriculum and plan another unit to supplant or better yet, replace, the book work.

The last pile is for professional reading, books I want to read this summer to broaden my own teaching horizon. Six books are sitting there, waiting for me to read or reread them. Building Literacy in Social Studies is on top of the stack. I’ve read and actually reviewed this book before, in 2007, but I want to look a bit closer at how to use some of the ideas given to improve how I teach social studies. The chapter on textbook literacy in particular interests me. Our students, as often is the case, struggle with informational text so I am hoping to get some ideas about helping them become more effective at looking for key concepts in what they are reading.

Alongside that, Ignite Student Intellect and Imagination in Social Studies sits. This book is filled with cookie cutter project ideas, some of which I hope to mine for ideas for my class. I like the idea of developing activities with choices for students, but often struggle coming up with equitable choices. I once had a pyramid model, and would like to use this book and its ideas to revisit that activity.

The Forest and the Trees will also be a book for my social studies class, as I try to find ideas for looking teaching the skills of finding important ideas in text. I am especially interested in the part of this book that addresses the skills students need for taking multiple choice tests. In today’s educational arena where so much rides on those high stakes test scores, teachers have a responsibility, unfortunately, to not only teach content and offer opportunities to develop high order thinking skills, but we must prepare students to think like test takers.

The last two books address teaching writing and reading in content areas: Teaching Reading in Social Studies, Science and Math and Content-Area Writing . I am a firm believer in the power of having students write for learning. I want to explore ways to use more writing in math class to have students understand and discover their own misconceptions.

Beyond the reading, and the lesson planning, there are the special projects. While I said no to many things I normally do in the summer, I did get suckered into two so far. This week I will be attending a workshop called MORE Alignment Workshop. The idea seems to be getting a sprinkling of various discipline teachers to look at online resources and align them to the state standards. The idea intrigues me because anytime we can use technology, students are immediately more interested in what we are doing. I am hoping by working to create alignment links for others, I discover many online resources I can myself use.

The last thing I have agreed to is a simple 2 day workshop in August that is part of a grant I wrote for a team of 3 teachers last year. We received a MACUL MI-Champions grant to attend last year’s conference, next year’s conference, and this 2 day summer workshop, all dedicated to technology integration. The agenda has up looking at wikis, blogs, and other simple ideas to more effectively integrate technology into our curriculum. It sounds pretty straightforward and uninspired but who knows? Maybe I will come away with some cool ideas. At the very least, I will have written a unit plan to use in my classes! A win-win scenario no doubt!

And before you know it, it will be time to be back in school, rearranging furniture and plugging in power strips, making copies, hanging posters, writing parent letters, and setting up my gradebook for fall. The halls will be empty, the floors shiny, all waiting the arrival of the KIDS!!!

Today's Education Week article, Districts Equipping School Buses With WiFi describes a program in Vail, Arizona where busses will be equipped with WiFi so students can access the internet on their bus ride to and from school. A worthy venture, no doubt. However, this article, and the money this district has for such programs enrages me as my own district struggles to keep the doors open and the lights on.

My comments posted at the article:
The inequity in public education in this country is appalling. While some districts are struggling to keep their doors open, to simply provide transportation for students at all, districts like this are able to give their students WiFi access on the bus?

I teach in a rural district in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Our district covers over 1,000 square miles (larger than the state of Rhode Island) with only just over 800 students, K-12. Our students ride the bus up to 2 hours to AND from school, not total. We have a population density, in the primary county of our school district, of 8 people per square mile. We bus students from 4 counties to our school. Vail School District in Arizona is a megapolis compared to us. The nearest traffic light, Walmart, and town with a population over 10,000 is over 65 miles away. Our students are isolated and for the most part, poor. They do not enjoy the luxuries other places and schools provide.

Since our students do not have school issued laptops, and many of them cannot afford personal laptops, providing WiFi would be just another way to waste taxpayer money. Outside the village limits of the one small town in our school district, there is no access to internet other than through a dialup connection or satellite.

Good for Vail, good for its students. This is just one more indication that public education in this country is for the wealthy, not all Americans. We talk a good talk about equal opportunities, but in reality, the divide between the haves and the have nots in this country continues to widen each day. It is sad to see my students miss out on the opportunities afforded children schooled other places simply due to geography.

Until we even the playing field of education, providing truly equal opportunities for all students, I fear for our future, as we create generations of children unprepared to compete globally.

This saddens me deeply, thinking of my students, many who are economically disadvantaged already, coming from homes where education is not valued, where college is not even considered an option, and thinking of the great divide between districts. It simply is not fair. It starts my students out in the world behind those in other districts. It sets them up for failure before they graduate high school. I simply do not understand why we allow this to happen in our country?

Good for Vail. Good for all those districts that have money to spend on great ideas like WiFi on their busses! Why can't it be that way in EVERY school? Why aren't MY students just as worthy as those other places?

There’s nothing sadder in June than an empty classroom, an empty hallway with lockers standing open, the last remnants of students scattered on the floor. In August, that same hallway and classroom will still stand empty, but the freshly waxed floors will emit a feeling of hope and promise for the upcoming school year. But for now, it is all about what has been, the good, the bad, the memories.

Packing the classroom is bittersweet. As I tuck away the notes from students, the pictures they have drawn me, the cards from them and parents, I find the ones from years gone by, and linger over those, remembering other smiling faces. Teaching really is a journey, a trip carefully orchestrated. All the stops along the path are the students you meet each year. Just as on vacation, some stops are enjoyable, ones you wouldn’t mind visiting again. Others, you leave with a ‘been there, done that’ feeling, knowing you’ve grown somehow from the experience, but don’t need to repeat it.

When I taught 8th grade, watching those kids leave the last day was sad, knowing they would disappear to the high school. Most of them I would never see again except in passing here and there. A few would wander back to the middle school halls to visit on occasion, those visits getting scarcer as the years went by. Letting them go was difficult and heartbreaking.

Teaching 7th grade is easier at the end of the year. The kids will be back, just around the corner. They won’t be ‘mine’ anymore, but I will see them every day in the hall. In September, many will still congregate by my room before school, causing a bottleneck in the hall, telling tales of summer, of their new classes and teachers, whining they wish they were still in 7th grade. As the year goes by, the start to wander away, finding their new hangout location, usually by the boys’ bathroom, causing a new bottleneck in traffic. My new 7th graders start to migrate to block the traffic outside my door, leaving behind their 6th grade memories.

Ending this year was different though. I will teach one section of 8th grade next year, so some of those students will be MINE again next year! It was a weird feeling, seeing them go, but knowing they will be back. Next year will be a journey we travel together, with me teaching Algebra 1 for the first time, learning alongside the students. I feel an overwhelming sense of responsibility to this group, the top of the top, the cream of the class.

Algebra 1 is always a tough class for kids. Many students end of taking it again as freshmen, they first experience with failure. How will I handle that experience? Failing a student I know has worked as hard as possible…

When I first starting teaching, an E I gave out bothered me. I thought every student should strive for the A. But as time has passed, I have come to reluctantly accept some failures as unavoidable.

The failures in Algebra, will they be avoidable? Will I be able to break the trend of having many students repeat this crucial class? I feel like a new teacher all over again, butterflies in my stomach. It will be an entirely new journey, with familiar faces along the way. I embrace it with trepidation and anticipation, and even a bit of dread.

For now, the Algebra 1 book sits on my dining room table, my summer homework project. Armed with the teacher’s manual, the exams, the support materials, I am determined to be ready when the empty hallways and lockers beckon in the September.

After the following essay I wrote several years ago was mentioned at Larry Ferlazzo's blog in his recent interview with Renee Moore, I decided to post it here:

Wonder Teacher:
I was talking to a friend the other day who is also a teacher, in a school much like mine, but far away. We laughed about the similarities of our situations, the kids, the administrators, the politics, and the unpredictable nature of our days. As I went down the litany of what I had done in the course of my day, my friend said to me, "You must have worn your cape today! Who are you? Wonder teacher?"


Knowing his day had been of the same intensity, I laughed at his comment. But later it started me thinking about our jobs as teachers, how much is expected of us, the wide range of skills we must possess, and how little we are rewarded in return for our efforts.

Maybe instead of the mundane teacher postings most districts advertise, they might want to consider the following:

Job Opening:Wonder Teacher
Qualifications:
1. Must have own cape and able to use it to fly to ubiquitous locations at any moment.
2. Ability to mold (not the fuzzy green kind) small minds.
3. Able to change actions mid-stream and head in an entirely opposite direction without a paddle, canoe or any flotation devices.
4. Make do financially on less than any other professionals and use a portion of those funds to supplement necessary classroom materials.
5. Work long hours, with summers and holidays off but devoted to additional training/professional development at your own expense, despite the fact you already have earned a Masters degree.
6. Deal with irate parents who think your main goal in life is to hinder the progress of their child.
7. Deal with administrators who have either never taught or have simply forgotten what it is like to be "in the trenches" on a daily basis-be subjected to their whims, mood swings, and half-baked ideas.
To apply, please contact your local school district.

That job description was written in jest, initially. Then I started thinking about each of the individual components of the "posting".

The first qualification: Maybe teachers don't need an actual cape to perform their daily duties, but they certainly need to be able to be in more than one location at a time In starts with hall duty, separating students in a scuffle at one corner as another student chats about their night, and four more ask what assignment they missed when they were absent. Two students are seeking a band-aid as another one strolls by in severe dress code violation—all before the day actually begins. And when the day does begin, it only gets more complicated, with six students in the class on task, four more finished early and bored, 12 needing additional help, three who were gone yesterday and are lost, one with ADD, one with ADHD, one with OCD, one with ODD, and a few others as yet unclassified. Does Amazon sell capes in my size?

The second qualification: Able to mold small minds. Teacher preparation classes at universities attempt to provide students with the necessary skills to teach all youth we will encounter by giving us a repertoire of lesson strategies, assessment tools and classroom management skills—most of which, once teachers are in a real classroom with real students, seem woefully inadequate. Think of a forest fire and a bucket. No matter how hard you try to put out all the flames, they just keep popping up. There is always one more student needing one more thing. There is always another stack of papers to be corrected, another parent phone call to make, another lesson idea to work on. It seems all those mundane tasks of teaching suck up more time than the time actually spent "molding young minds" until the teacher's mind is the one covered in a furry green substance.

Band concerts, fire drills, IEP's, intercom interruptions about the next dance or bake sale, schedule changes, observations, knocks at the door, guest speakers, unannounced assemblies, snow days, and on and on. The best-planned lessons are interrupted; the most well designed schedules disintegrate without a trace. It feels like you're on a torrential whitewater river, crashing downstream in a $4 blowup raft from the Dollar Store, bouncing over sharp boulders, with no steering device or safety equipment.

The third qualification: Teacher pay is simply not comparable to the compensation in other careers that require similar education and levels of professionalism. It begins with low starting salaries and it's compounded as you find you're required to pay for your own continuing education, all the while climbing up the salary ladder at a turtle's stately pace. I just heard about General Motors cutting back on a program that previously paid employees up to $10,000 a year for graduate classes. Now they must settle for $6500 a year (the same amount offered to employees working towards their bachelor degree). Holy cow! Imagine $6500 a year for graduate school tuition. I'd dance naked in the streets (trust me, not a pretty sight) for that kind of tuition reimbursement. Teachers everywhere would be overjoyed with such a support system. Keep in mind that continuing education is required for maintaining teacher certification, and the classes are offered either nights, weekends, or in the summer. While this makes it possible for teachers to take the classes, it cuts into time with our families. Few other occupations require as much commitment of outside time to keep your current position.

The fourth qualification: In the course of many years of teaching, most parents I have dealt with have been terrific. They are positive, supportive, and yes, even appreciative of my efforts on behalf of their children. However, somehow all it takes is that one irate, irrational parent to negate the entire positive past interactions. Every teacher has dealt with parents who are of the opinion that from 8 until 3 each day, their share of the responsibility for raising their child is zero. We've also had that parent who defends the actions of their little angel regardless of the evidence. We've had parents threaten us with physical violence, with lawsuits, with rumor and innuendo, seemingly thinking we get out of bed every morning with the sole purpose of picking on their child.

The fifth qualification: Having the support of your principal and your superintendent makes the job bearable-or not. Knowing that when things are rough, you have someone who will support you, stand with you, and acknowledge your efforts, really can make all the difference. When administrators don't listen to the professionals upon whom their own success depends, the teaching life can become pure drudgery.

Maybe the title Wonder Teacher is appropriate after all? When you look objectively at the job, sometimes it does make you wonder why anyone chooses to become a teacher.
For me though, objectivity has never been a strong suit. Waking up each morning, thinking about the day ahead, the smiling faces I know will be there to greet me, the enthusiastic questions, the wonder at learning something new, the perseverance through rough times, the laughter, the note passing, the corny jokes, the smell of markers, the chalk dust in the air, sound of lockers slamming, the cafeteria cuisine, the forgotten textbooks, the missing pencils—all that makes up for the anything the parents, the administrators, or the school board can toss my way. Most days, I just can't believe they actually PAY me to come here, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Does that make me Wonder Teacher? Not at all. Just your normal, typical everyday American classroom teacher.

By the way, do you have to dry clean these capes?

As I think about cleaning and packing for the summer months, I am saddended at the thoughts of next school year. With the overwhelming budgets and staff shuffling, our middle school will no longer be the same, with no hope on the horizon to restore it. When the dust settles, there will be but 5 people who teach only middle school. That leaves 5 teachers for this vulnerable group of kids to turn to, to identify with, and to bond with. The rest of their day will be with teachers who teach a random section of this or that in middle school, but spend the rest of their day teaching high school or elementary. They will have no real ties to the middle school or the students here.

Middle school students are at such a crucial time in their lives, with physical and emotional changes constantly happening to their bodies. They need consistency, caring, competency, and most of all, a knowledge that they are accepted for who they are, the ever-changing thems from day to day.

I understand that our school finances are in dire straits. I really do get that. I don't know that given the magic pen to make the schedule myself, I would be able to create something more supportive of our students.

However, I am greatly saddened to imagine the impact this is going to have on our students.

On top of the staffing changes, budget cuts to supplies are such that my pitiful allotment of $100 will barely cover the basics of markers for my whiteboards, let alone things like lined paper and pencils for students who cannot/will not supply their own. What about things like poster board for projects, markers, graph paper, glue? Forget new posters for my classroom walls, or new atlases to replace the ones in shreds from being used for the past 5 years. Forget tape, staples, white out, the simple basic office supplies to run a classroom. Forget construction paper, tagboard, new math manipulatives. Forget highlighters, index cards, and postit notes to help students organize their social studies learning. Don't even consider replacing the tables in my classroom that wobble and creak when a student bumps against them. Don't imagine things like SmartBoards, or electronic response tools for students. Always, I have forked over money, as all teachers do, to buy classroom supplies for general use or for needy students. However, with my own salary being slashed next year, where will THIS money come from? I certainly won't be able to make up the missing items from my own funds.

Can you imagine a hospital in the United States that did not supply its emergency room or operating room with sterile bandages, tape, disfectancts, or sutures but instead expected the doctors and nurses to bring in their own supplies? Can you imagine a corporate office where the CEO had to carry in his own box of Kleenex for his desk? Can you imagine telling the engineer at the aeronautics lab providing his own soap for the restroom? But routinely, we expect teachers to do these things!

I am saddened by the state of education today. I am saddened to think how little the legislature thinks of my job, the child who walk through doors, and how far reaching the impact of their decisions will be.

As the end of the year hurtles towards me, I try to remain focused. There are many lessons yet to impart to my 7th graders before that final bell rings.

Some are obvious, math concepts we’ve not yet covered, simply assignments left to be completed.

Others are more important in the scheme of life.

I want them to see me working until that last bells rings, not giving up because there are only a few days left, or because I am too tired to think, or because what’s done at the end of school doesn’t matter anyway because their brains are fried.

There seems to be a pervading mentality in some classrooms that at a certain point, school is done, despite what the calendar says. Textbooks are collected early. Vaguely connected videos are popped in. Game days and free time are rampant.

While I may be a little more lax the last week or so, learning still echoes within my classroom walls. I remind myself as I am planning of all the things we need to review one more time, or little topics we barely brushed on, or things we simply never got to in the grand plan. I try to make these lessons as relevant and hands on as possible, trying to keep them engaged and interested, until the last bell rings, the last locker is emptied, and the bus pulls out of the lot.

I think students need us, almost want us, to keep them focused. They are experiencing a breaking away phenomenon, knowing they are headed onto the next grade. For some students, this is a scary transition, with new teacher, new expectations, and a curriculum they feel unprepared to tackle. For others, their this-year’s teachers have become a safe haven, someone they trust, someone they can turn to, and they are reluctant to let go of that relationship. They need and crave the established routine to keep them from focusing on the inevitable ending of this time.

I also think we need to be role models, showing that we are indeed still in school, still expected to complete certain tasks each day. It is easy as adults to become lackadaisical about our responsibilities, but by doing just that, we set a poor example for our students, telling them slacking off at the end of the race is acceptable. We need to help them be in the here, in the now, 100%.

All this is easier written than done for certain. I long to drift aimlessly these last few days, telling tales of days gone by, filling the hours with meaningless drivel.
I refuse to succumb completely, but that doesn’t mean I can’t sing a little song, serve a little ice cream, and make those last days leave a bit of nostalgia on their minds as they depart.

It has been incredibly hot and sticky here this week. When I got to school at 7 this morning, the thermometer in my classroom read 82 degrees, despite the fact I left my window open all night with a fan pulling cooler air inside.

Trying to teach when it is this warm and muggy is virtually impossible. The kids are like limp stinky dishclothes, sitting there, emitting nothing more than a musty smell. They cannot be bothered to even pretend to be engaged in whatever we are doing.

I will admit I am not much better. Even the heat from the projector or my laptop seem unbearable. I just want to melt into a puddle and be done with it all.

I remember growing up in Mississippi in the 60's and 7o's. Temperatures like this were the norm in the fall and spring. Classrooms were never air conditioned, until I was in high school at least. We sat in our chairs, in puddle of sweat, and roasted. When air conditioning was finally welcomed at our school with the addition of the new wing my freshman year, it was almost worse to be in those rooms, knowing you would have to leave the cool crisp air to go back into the humidity and heat. I often wonder how teachers drew the lucky straw to have classrooms in that wing, with the comforts not only of new rooms, but the air conditioning.

Are kids today not as tough as we were? Did we just have lower expectations? Did we endure it just because it was the way it was? My students whine and complain and groan and moan, almost as if they don't think *I* realize how hot it is! Like I am not sweating along side them. I would have never dared whine about the heat to a teacher. I just sat there, in my puddle of sweat, filling out endless columns of multiplication problems, copying spelling words over and over, reading boring history texts, never daring to imply my discomfort was of their causing.

I think the attitudes of my students are indicative of a larger issue entirely: the degradation of respect for teachers and the sublimal message that students should be able to "run the show", expecting US to fix everything for them, make it all right, make them comfortable at all cost. We're creating a generation who expect everyone around them to bend over backwards to make their world perfect, without teaching them to create their own solutions. Teachers are often viewed, by parents and teachers, as just another part of the structure of the school itself, without consideration for our own-ness. We are expected to be available to parents and students at their beck and call. We are supposed to find ways, above and beyond the call of duty, to MAKE sure every child succeeds. Society demands we forget our own lives at the expense of our students, financially, academically and emotionally.

I wonder if all those legislators in Lansing and Washington right now are sweating. Oh, wait.. their offices are air conditioned!! As they sit in the comfort of their cushy chair, in their air conditioned office, slashing programs and funding, here I sit, in my classroom, as the temperature creeps closer and closer to the 90 degree mark, trying to figure out why I went into education, knowing my pay will be docked 3% next year, my supply allowance will dwindle to $100, and most likely, I will be paying 20% of my insurance premiums. I will have another class to prep for. I will have more students on my load. Somehow, running for office seems like the way to go.

Camp is done and over with for another year, likely the last year. With all the staff reductions in the middle school over the past years, it becomes more and more difficult to put together the camp experience each year. Even now that we've gone to 2 days instead of 3, the planning and prep work is overwhelming. Add to that an aging staff, the reality that 7th grade camp is a thing of the past is quickly setting in.

This year was AWESOMELY amazing from my standpoint. We took such a small group of students - 39 middle schoolers, along with 8 junior counselors. Just the crowd control of such a small group made everything seem easier. Thursday was hot and sunny and miserable to be doing anything outside so we ditched our last 2 class sessions and let them all swim instead. The water was freezing cold so early in the year, but they loved it anyway, swimming for a while, then warming up on the grassy bank or under the pavillion.

They ran and played, fished and laughed, ate and told stories, sang at the top of their lungs, roasted marshmallows, soaking up every moment of the camp experience. I watched and laughed along, saddened, knowing this would be that last group to experience this after 33 years of camp tradition.

Education seems to be headed down a scary road to me. One where kids don't matter as much as policy. One where high stakes tests matter more than character building. One where it's about the end result instead of the process.

The powers that be seem to have forgotten that kids matter, that we are creating futures in our schools, futures we want to be strong, with compassion and empathy, not just bubbleable knowledge. It's no longer about what's best for kids, but what looks good on paper.....

I love 7th grade camp, most of it, anyway.

I don't like the planning part, the making sure everything is ready part, the making sure we have everything we need part....

I love the excitement of the kids before we go. I love the excitement of the kids once we are there. I love being there with the kids in a different settings, learning about each other in an entirely new way.

I don't like the deciding who can and can't go, though the longer I do this job, the more I realize how important it truly is to leave behind those who will struggle there. I've come to realize the worth of the show of actions have consequences, sometimes, even months after the event. I've come to realize that the 'good' kids deserve things just theirs, without the difficulties associated with bringing 'everyone'.

I do feel badly for some of those left behind, the gray area kids, the ones who did something dumb, an isolated event, but still got their name on the dreaded list. I try to look at it as a learning experience for them, and often, their parents.

But the part I hate the MOST, the very VERY MOST???? The week of camp, those days at school before we leave.... the kids going are excited beyond belief. The kids not going are surly, rude, bristly. While I understand their disappointment and even anger, that does not excuse their disrespectfulness.

2 more days... 2 more days... then camp for 2 days!! YYYYIIIIPPPPEEEEE!!!!!!!

In education, we give a lot of lip service to what's best for kids. We bemoan new initiatives saying they aren't what's best for kids. We stick with the tried and true, what we've always done because after all, we know what's best for kids.

How often do we really mean what's easiest for us?

Education today is driven by two often opposing forces: data and money.

Data driven instruction is at the forefront of what all teachers should be doing. Professional development on how to is common place. The web is full of suggestions of Creating a Framework to Make Data-Driven Instruction a Reality, and 'affordable' programs that make this possible. Data Driven Classrooms, Data Director, and Scantron all tout their services as the best, the greatest, the latest.

Is data driven instruction really what's best for kids though? Can data tell us everything we need to know about what our students need to learn, what they already know, and where we need to go next in the process? Is data better than our gut instinct? My opinion? That depends entirely on how we analyze the data, what we do with the data, and ultimately, how does our instruction change, really change, based on the data, and how does that eventually trickle down to impacting student learning/achievement. If the only 'follow through' on the data will be one lame PD day set aside for teachers to look at the data, with no additional provisions for time to redesign lessons and remediation strategies, it is unlikely the data driven instruction will ever actually occur. If teachers are expected to carve out time from their already packed schedule to do this data desegregating on their own, likely, it will never happen. If teachers are not given the tools to change their instruction, ways/ideas to provide the remediation, likely, it will not happen. If we are not going to change the bigger educational arena to make data driven instruction achievable in the average classroom, going back to the good ole gut instinct of the teacher makes a lot more sense, is less expensive, less time intensive, and probably just as effective in the long run.

If we truly believe that data driven instruction is what's best for kids, schools would provide teachers with time to work with other teachers to really look at data, and make sound instructional decisions based on their findings. Time would be set aside regularly during the school year for collaborative planning to develop remediation plans, to talk about kids and data and strategies.

Instead, we give data driven instruction lip service because it's what's in the educational news blurbs. We don't really believe in its power enough to make it a true priority in our schools and in our schedules.

Teachers, in particular, spend a lot of time talking about money being the reason they cannot be successful teaching students. They point out that if they only had smaller classes, they could give more one on one attention to their charges, which would lead to higher achievement. Research to support this theory is sketchy at best. Others beg for more technology, more money for supplies for their classrooms, and for more funding for extracurricular programming. Granted, all these things make a teacher's life easier, the educational experience of the students richer, but does that mean without all of them, that experience cannot still be worthwhile?

Often what educators mean is If it isn't worth it for the powers to be to fund it, it is no longer worth it to me either. When funding for after-school programs is cut, suddenly, no one is available to supervise them. When funding for field trips and other fun items is cut, teachers suddenly make do without, rather than seeking other solutions. If we truly believed these were what's best for kids, and we were really all about what's best for kids, wouldn't we find a way, volunteer our time, step up to the plate?

Society does not seem to place the value on public education it once did. Bond requests are often voted down. Fewer parents seem to be available for volunteering. Students often do not have the basic supplies needed for success at school. Teachers are berated in the news, by legislators, parents, and the media. Blame is tossed around willy nilly, onto all the stakeholders.

If we were ALL in it for what's best for kids, wouldn't we stop looking for people to blame and start creating solutions?

It really isn't about the data driving us or the funding we lack. Those aren't what are truly the driving forces in education today. The key driving force is the people: the teachers, the support staff, and the adminstration that deal with students day in and day out. Those are the keys to success or failure. Until we circle our wagons, rally the troops, call in the cavalry, and take responsibility for our own actions and their subsequent consequences, all the data and money in the world won't make a difference in the futures of our students. We've lost sight of what's best for kids, in our ever forward pressing quest for what's right for us.

THE worst part of teaching middle school is the girl drama. One of my more 'dramatic' young ladies came into first hour with that attitude written all over her face. She came up to me and pointedly said, "I'm just telling you because I think you are the only teacher here who cares, but if somebody don't do something about Gertrude(names changed to protect the innocent, the guilty, and me!), I'm gonna slap her face."


"Whoa, wait just a second," I said as Broomhilda walked away with a toss of her hair and a jaunt in her step.

"What's going on?" I knew that Gertrude and Broomhilda had JUST been BFF'S4EVER yesterday.


"She's just got to stop running her fat pie hole is all," Broomhilda elaborated as I wished she'd thought ANYONE else cared.

Wanting nothing but to start class and pretend this whole incident hadn't happened, I pushed further. "Gertrude is telling EVERYONE I am calling people fat wh*res. and, I didn't. You going to talk to her or what?"


"Yes, I will talk to her," I replied with a disenchanted sigh.

Tracking down Gertrude later, of course, there was an entirely different story. Apparently, what REALLY happened was Eustice said that Helga said that Flavia said that Broomhilda told Fiona, that Gertrude said that Broomhilda said that Helga said that Flavia told Eustice that Broomhilda might have thought about telling Gertrude that she was a fat wh*re but really Inga told Gertrude that Helga told Flavia that Broomhilda was ugly and that Gertrude was a poser.
Well, that clears EVERYTHING up, now doesn't it???


So... I drag Broomhilda and Gertrude into my room on my break and try to get them to talk it out. As the plot thickens, with Esmarelda and Trixie spreading rumors about Marcela and Malva to Broomhilda AND to Gertrude, I kind of lost my patience with the whole thing. Here sits Broomhilda with her pouty look, sitting sideways so she doesn't have to LOOK at Gertrude, shaking her teased pile of hair on top of her head, above her thick eyeliner lined eyes, saying she doesn't care WHAT happened, she AIN'T going to be any part of any of this anymore. She is just going to SLAP this next person who says something. And, if I don't believe her that she will slap somebody just call her mom.


And even as I try to get them to talk to each other, and even as Gertrude admits her role in the entire incident and confesses she want to be friends with Broomhilda again, Broomhilda sits there, with that rotten smirky grin pasted across her face.


Finally... I just gave up and sent them both to their classes.


I didn't sign up to be a counselor for a reason!! Girl drama... girl drama....


I almost hope they duke it out so they get suspended so they don't get to go to 7th grade camp next week. How's THAT for a middle school teacher's perfect solution????


19 days, 19 days... we can do this. WE CAN DO THIS. **SIGH**

Thank You Notes inspired me to write this "letter of recommendation" for Mrs. Fair, my 7th grade math teacher.


During my years of school, I had many wonderful teachers, many who touched me in personal ways, serving to create the me of today who now teachs 7th graders math and social studies. Looking back, I feel fortunate to have had all those role models to help me become the teacher I am today.

However, of all those teachers, Mrs. Fair stands out as the one who made the most significant difference in my life. When she came to our junior high, young, pretty, in her impeccable clothes, all of the girls looked up to her, wanting to be like her some day. She always looked the part of the perfect teacher, and best of all, she smelled wonderfully! We were entranced from the start.

Once we got past being mesmerized by her picture perfect appearance, we discovered this wonderful, soft spoken, caring, kind, patient, guiding person who pushed us further than we'd ever been pushed before.

Math had always been mundane, something I had done with rote patience, a task to be completed. But with Mrs Fair, math became exciting, engaging, something that made my mind twist and turn, thinking about concepts in a new way. I was hooked, forever hooked on math! It was fate that someday I would stand in front of 7th graders, trying to impart the same skills to them as she did with me.

Even when I was struggling, she encouraged me. When I was confused, she believed in me. When I wanted to give up, she pushed me harder. Seventh grade was a turning point for me. I learned how to be a student, how to experience success through unconditional teaching. Mrs. Fair was the reason.

Sincerely,
Cossondra George

So there's this kid..... it's always about that ONE kid, isn't it.....

RL is this big gumpy kid, rough around the edges, but just plain loveable, nowhere near as tough as he'd have you think he is. He's incredibly intelligent, not afraid to be wrong, willing to speak his mind, take a chance, with a smile that would melt you heart. He stands almost a foot taller than me in his ubiquitous black Carhartt jacket and has that look that makes you think he is going to plunk every kid he walks by on the head. In reality, RL is a big ol' softie, soft spoken, and gentle.

He lives on the edge though. Trouble seems to come looking for him way too often. The notes from subs say he was off task, bothering others, disrespectful. Every time I wonder if they really have the right kid. When he gets suspended once again for getting into a scuffle, I wonder how the heck THIS kid could ever do that.

When I took kids to a college hockey game, RL brought in his money and permission slip with pride. Unlike many of the students I was taking, this was a rare opportunity for him to do something BIG. His family doesn't do those kinds of things, and I was sure the $15 to go had been a hardship. I was a little surprised he was going. However, when the trip was all said and done, he was the ONE kid of the 25 I took to say "thank you" as he exited the bus. He added, "It was fun!"

Then today, there he is, in the office again. This time for chewing tobacco, an automatic 3 days out of school. The principal stuck his head in my room, saying RL was concerned about his work, so I went over there, taking his test he'd be missing today, along with a calculator, admonishing him, but encouraging him to think and do well on his test. When I saw his mom walk in the office, I introduced myself to her and told her what a wonderful young man her son was. She looked surprised and thanked me. I took his incomplete test and told him I'd hang onto it for him. As they walked down the hall together, RL looked back at me over his shoulder, a shy smile my way as I waved goodbye.

There's always that one kid.....

Letting Go

The last weeks of school are all about letting go. We let go of the students, who are moving onto the next grade, along with letting go of our met and unmet expectations.

The most difficult part of becoming a teacher for me was the realization that I cannot save every child that walks into my classroom. Like many newbie teachers, I was sure I would be the one who could reach every struggling student, turn them around, and make them want to learn, want to please me, and want to be successful, in not only my classes but in life in general. I was naïve about the power of outside influences and the potential of forces beyond my reach to change the performances of students in my classroom.

I rode into school with my super hero cape, smile on my face, toolbox full of research, and college classroom pedagogy tricks, enthusiasm bubbling over, ready to tackle them all. Tackle, no…. I was going to save them all.
Then, reality set in. I saw them walk in the door, downtrodden from years of failure and despair, already having given up on themselves. These were the easy ones, as time would tell. These just needed their confidence restored, a chance at success, and some shoring up of skills and independence. I was able to see the spark return in many of these students, the assurance that yes, they can do it, that someone believes in them, and wants them to be successful.

It was the others I had to learn to let go of. The one young lady I have this year has missed 44 days of school so far. That is one fourth of the entire school year. Try as I will, I cannot teach her 180 days worth of curriculum in less than 140 days. I can try to help her grow along a continuum, moving slowly forward, but I can’t make up all those lost days. I can encourage her to come to school, make her feel welcome when she is here, and make the most of the days she does attend. Reality is though, she will move onto the next grade, going into that class unprepared. I have to let go of my expectations that she will be successful this year. It is out of my control.

I had to let go of my expectations for the girl who came here to live with her grandfather, because her mother, the drug addict, didn’t want her anymore. Up until this point in her life, she had basically raised herself. Despite his efforts, grandfather couldn’t get her to come to school on a regular basis. He couldn’t keep her from roaming the streets, hanging out with the rough older crowd of kids she was drawn to. She was sent to juvenile lockup so many times, eventually, she was sent away. I had to let her go, knowing I hadn’t made the impact in her life I wanted to, that she needed me to make.

Others I have had to let go of because their parents have instilled in them a sense of entitlement that the rules do not apply to them, that they hold no personal responsibility for their own learning, and that any failure is due to my lacking, and none of their own. I’ve had to let go of both the students and the parents on many occasions when even at 7th grade, the parent thinks their child should be able to walk in and out of the classroom at will, shouldn’t be held accountable for their supplies, work or behaviors. They consistently blame other students, the teachers, the school system and society in general for the shortcomings of their child.

Letting go of those children was never easy, and was always a hard fought battle on my end. I’ve taken late night tear filled collect phone calls, listening to the “I think I’m pregnant” stories. I’ve made repeated parent phone calls trying to impress upon them to importance of having their child in school. I’ve explained rules and procedures, outlining how to help their child experience success and independence, offering parenting readings to support my stance. I’ve gone to ball games and track meets, talked about dogs and vacations, tried to make those personal level connections that are so important to reaching troubled kids and drawing them into the circle of success. And sometimes, it works, and sometimes, it is like that balloon you see flying high in the sky, escaping, out of reach.

The school year is winding down which makes for all kinds of excitement, good and bad.

Finally, it seems the kids are in their groove: they all know what is expected, how to make it through the day, and they manage to follow that routine fairly unwavering, almost like cattle headed to the feed trough. The ones who don't like me and my classes have decided to just keep plodding their way through, headed for that victory lap, hoping against all hopes I don't get moved to 8th grade along with them. The ones who do like me and my classes start begging me to teach them again the next year, or even more amusing, ask can't they please be held back in 7th grade to do it all over again.

But personalities aside, we've found our comfort zones with each other, reaching an understanding and a middle ground.

7th grade camp is just around the corner and the excitement is building. Tomorrow will be our official meeting where paperwork is passed out, and the long anticipated "What to bring to camp" list is finally in their hands. Every day, every hour, the questions about camp are endless. The ones going want details. The ones not going want to pout, beg, and plead their case one more time. The ones going want to know who will be in the cabin, what classes they will take, what is the food like, and are you really going to search our bags. The ones not going want to posture and say they didn't want to go anyway, even as they longingly soak up every tidbit of information. It is a rite of passage for both groups. For many, it the first time away from home, away from parents, and on their own. For some of those left behind, it is a first wake up call that their behaviors do have consequences, sometimes, long after the offenses occurred. But for everyone, it is the marking of the end of the middle of middle school.


And as the student population looks longingly at June 9, so does the staff. With more and more cuts and consolidations, the changes on the front for next year are being pondered. Some teachers embrace their new assignments with enthusiasm and acceptance. Others pout and complain. Some take their arguments up with adminstration, pleading their case for what they view as the best placement or schedule. Others monopolize the lounge conversations with their complaints, or corner anyone and everyone to whine about the situation. But for me... what I do next fall doesn't matter as long as I get to stay in the middle school :)

My own schedule for the upcoming year looks much like this one, thankfully. The addition of 1more section of social studies won't change much in my day. The addition of one section of Algebra 1, however, will make for another prep, one I haven't taught before. It will be an adventure for me and the kids. I look forward to the challenge, and look forward to having that upper group of kids again.

My philosophy on the schedule is to embrace the changes, assume those in control know more about the big picture than I do, and forge forward with all my might, for better or worse.

So as the year winds down, the changes roll on. New kids will walk in the door in the fall. New routines will be created. Some I will like. Some I won't. Some will like me. Some won't. But come next May at this time, things will look much as they do now....

Two of Michigan's 7th grade Grade Level Content Expectations for math are:

A.PA. 07.09 Recognize inversely proportional relationships in contextual situations; know that quantities are inversely proportional if their product is constant.

A.RP.07.10 Know that the graph of y=k/x is not aline; know its shape; and know that it crosses neither the x nor the y-axis.

OK. I can teach that. We look at the length and widths of rectangles with fixed areas in the context of building a garden with a predetermined amount of mulch. We do a group activity where students are given a set amount of money to earn performing a service. For each of these, they create their tables and graphs, write their equations, and we analyze the situations in context of the problem.

But somehow, there always seems to be a disconnect, something missing, from the lessons. My students, at least half of them, do not understand the concepts of factors and multiples, and do not know their multiplication facts with automaticity. These are concepts they should have mastered in late elementary school, but still lack at the end of 7th grade.

How do we find the missing piece? Where is it? How do we get all the pieces of mathematics to fit together when students are simply moving on up the ladder of school without first mastering the concepts at each grade level. How do we get all these pieces together, organized, fitting together perfectly before they advance to the new math curriculum that expects all students to master through Algebra II?

Our school, along with others across the state, sees a train wreck when the bulk of the student population hits Algebra I as freshmen (The more math ready students took Algebra I as 8th graders). Suddenly, all those years of being sent along the continuum of math classes, without being ready for advancement, catches up with them. Here starts the catch-up effort, finally.

Wouldn't it make more sense to catch them earlier, provide some intense remediation when they first start to struggle? Not only would we provide students the opportunity to develop a strong numerical foundation, perhaps some of the math phobias we see could be overcome.

But then again, over 80% of this years 7th graders scored proficient on the almighty MEAP test. The state test seems to think they are doing OK. Oh, wait.. it is because the cut score is set so low that students with less than a 40% score are labeled as proficient. When the state says less than 40% is good enough, who am I to question? Maybe I need to rethink my grading scale. If we count 40% as proficient, that must equate to at least a B, so let's call 50% an A! From now on, scores of 40% and above will get A's, 30-40% get B's, 20-30% C's. Report cards will be amazing! Just think of all the kids on honor roll!

OOOOOOppppppsssss....... that won't solve anything will it? They will still get to Algebra I unprepared for the material, the train wreck will still happen, and kids will be struggling to graduate in 4 years.

Where do we implement change? How do we implement change?

There is much talk of how schools need to change from the sit and get method of teaching, to encouraging students to think for themselves. What a wonderful concept, in theory.

Too often, students come with the attitude of tell what I need to know, tell me how you want me to give it back to you, and I will reproduce your thoughts on paper, and BINGO, I win my 'A'. They are programmed to spew back facts and ideas fed to them without actually creating or investigating on their own.

When given a problem to solve, students stare blankly at the paper, afraid or unable to attempt to think for themselves. They want THE ANSWER. They don't like the thought that there might not be a right answer.

How have we programmed them this way or did they come to school with that mentality?

And now... how do we reprogram them to want to think for themselves?

I think one of the best ways to improve education and promote independent thinking is to do away with our current system of grading students. Students and parents are motivated by the almighty 'A' with little regard for what the 'A' actually means in terms of student achievement and learning progress. Other students seem so intimidated by grades they almost refuse to try, so certain they will never achieve that illusive 'A' they simply quit before they try, like taking the 0 for doing nothing is better than accepting a 'C' for working hard but not making the ultimate 'A' mark.

Teachers often feel pressure to give high grades so parents aren't complaining. Students also put their fair share of grade pressure on teachers. Participation in sports is often dependent on grades. But each teacher 'grades' their own way. Some give extra credit to boost scores. Some weight homework heavily, others rely on summative assessments for their primary source of reporting grades. Some give participation grades; others base grades solely on achieving mastery of the content. Some teacher allow retakes; others do not. Some average retake scores with the original; some let the higher score stand. Grades often mean nothing comparatively from course to course, teacher to teacher, school to school.

Without grades, school could actually be about learning, experiencing, and growing, instead of the letter that gets published on the report card. Students would not be intimidated by the threat of failure or not measuring up. Teachers could design lessons to spark enthusiasm and encourage risk taking instead of ones that are easily assessed on a 4 point scale. Students would move onto more difficult material when they were ready not when they sat their 9 months in a class, earned their percentage and were rotely moved along the conveyor belt of school. Learning would be fluid and flexible.

Would it work? Who knows.... but they way we are doing things now certainly isn't meeting the needs of all learners, or even preparing a vast percentage of students for college or life beyond high school. Perhaps it is time for something new!

With more and more cuts from the state, schools are being forced to make difficult choices in what/who to keep and what to let go from their budgets. It has gone way beyond cutting spending on classroom supplies and field trips, to districts eliminating transportation and cutting programs. How do you decide what to keep and what to give up? Is music more important than physical education? Is it more important to offer after-school tutoring or keep the library open?

These are decisions that should never have to be made in the first place. The wars in Iraq & Afghanistan have cost over $985,000,000,000 so far. The US alone has sent relief in the amount of $100 million to Haiti. The state of California spends over a billion dollars a year in medical care for illegal immigrants. Taxpayers foot the bill of smokers to the tune of $10 billion a year.

But schools are being forced to decide whether to put 35 kindergartners in a room or eliminate janitorial service. Our priorities in this country are out of whack. Until the general public realizes that without free quality public education, we as a society are doomed, and as a group step up and fund these institutions adequately, our country is going to become one of a larger divide between the have's and have not's.

We've forgotten that our children are out greatest resource. We've forgotten that our country was built on the principles of equal opportunities for all.

Just throwing more money at education is NOT the answer. But until schools are funded adequately, things will continue to deteriorate. Fewer college graduates will choose education as a career option, seeking more lucrative fields of employment. More people who can afford private options will seek those, further compromising the integrity of the public system. The downward spiral will become a self-fullfilling prophecy of failure and inadequacy.

What is the answer? I don't know for sure. But I have some ideas:

• Find ways to fix the system in place now for starters.


• Get rid of teachers and adminstrators who do not do their job.


• Eliminate wasteful practices and positions.


• Consolidate business operations.


• Remember the purpose of the school is to provide a quality educational experience for the students, not be an employment agency for adults.


• Work to support the whole child, providing services such as health care, counseling, and guidance.


• Provide support for parents, through parenting classes, adult education and opportunities to be a part of their child's education.


• Make sure students have and use the most current technology needed to make them competitive when they go to college or in the workforce, but stop spending on the latest and greatest tech toys, just to have them.


• Encourage teachers to learn and grow with and from each other instead of paying top dollars for 'experts' to come give 'sit and get' lectures. Provide time for embedded professional development where your best and brightest share and lead others.

And perhaps the most important place we can make improvements: change the paradigm in our society to value education. Expect excellence in students, teachers and parents. Demand excellence in students, teachers and parents. Let's work together to make systematic changes before it becomes too late.