Sunday, December 23, 2018
It's Christmas Break. We are only a few short days away from the halfway point of the school year and I really struggle starting this blog. When I mentioned this to my part time editor, part time consultant, and full time spouse she said to me, "why don't you just give it a break for a while." I thought about taking a break for this reason, I wanted to update everyone on the school's recent School Quality Review (SQR) but I didn't want to bring it up because it so close to Christmas and it is such a depressing topic. So, here I sit at the kitchen table typing. First, I'll update you on the SQR and then I'll move on to the reason that I started typing and hopefully we'll end up on a happy note.
Despite knowing that the King's Justice, the royal executioner, is nearby and could possibly lop off the head of every teacher in the school, I decided to ask my colleagues, some no longer at the school, what they thought about the SQR process. One of my colleagues expressed surprise that this review was actually taking place but another talked about the reality of the situation. The comments I received start below and I'll be paraphrasing.
"I was shocked to see that the school was under review. All they see is numbers. Trust me, this school is so much better compared to some of the other ones. This school is so much more welcoming and the teachers are so enthusiastic compared to the other schools that I have been in."
"I now get to visit other schools in the district. Compared to your school there are others that are real shit holes and they belong on the review list, not your school."
"They will love our school. Bottom line, we can't produce the scores. Yes, this is a nice school but there is no consistency, no urgency with discipline, and the scholars are very complacent."
"Leadership is so inconsistent as we changed multiple times. It takes five years to truly turn around a school. We have issues and we cover them with kindness and excuses. We can't keep putting band aids on it."
That was very difficult for me to write. Those were some pretty tough words from my colleagues. Sadly, as I've been in this school for almost seven years now, they are accurate.
On Friday, December 21st, school came to a halt as it was Christmas break. I wasn't in the building last Friday so, as far as I know, the SQR results are not in. Now everyone waits to see what the King will do. As we approach Christmas and then the New Year I pray that once the results of the review have been analyzed the King will not send his King's Justice, the royal executioner, to our school to lop off around thirty teaching heads and then begin to rebuild the school from the ground up with an entirely new teaching staff.
Enough of that. Time to move on to my Chick-fil-A revisit. It's been about a year since I stepped into a Chick-fil-A as I'm not a fast food restaurant type of guy. On my last visit I had Grr! with me and I was his personal escort so that he could participate in the Bag of Cheer distribution. This year I was a little more involved in the process. I guess my involvement was welcomed as I heard a few times, "Schultz, I have a project for you." So, what was my involvement in this project? Manage the production line to assemble the Bags of Cheer was one of them. Here is the production process, completed quite admirably by some of the T-6 scholars. Pick up one white paper sandwich bag that had a pre-attached green label on it explaining to the recipient what this bag was all about. Go to the next station, pick up a tree ornament, mostly reindeer made of out popsicle sticks, one gift tag, and place both items in the bag. The next table contained small clear plastic sandwich bags with two dog biscuits in each bag and that goes into the bag. The next station contained a packet of hot chocolate, a small candy cane, and both items go into the bag. The next stop is the end of the production line. The bag is inspected for contents, folded closed, stapled shut, a holiday sticker is placed on the bag, and finally the bag goes on the inventory table for counting. Got it? Good! Now repeat the process four hundred and forty-nine more times.
As it was last year, this is a T4 project with help from others and it is a huge, time consuming process so why does T4 do this? Paraphrasing T4, "because of the neighborhood our school is in our scholars get a lot from the school and almost always at little or no cost to their parental units. Knowing this, I felt that it was important that each of our scholars have the opportunity to feel how good it is to give rather than receive."
The Bag of Cheer distribution took place last Thursday. Just like last year I was on the bus with all of the fourth grade scholars plus several adults and we were heading to the Chick-fil-A. At around 10:30am fifty or so scholars invaded the Chick-fil-A and began distributing the Bags of Cheer. Each scholar walked up to a total stranger, with a smile on their face, handed their bag to this person, and got to feel how great it felt to give something to somebody. There are reasons that I like to hang out in the fourth grade, this is one of them. There is also a reason that I don't mind eating fast food. The restaurant gave every scholar and adult a free meal.
Here are a couple short stories, and like I've said numerous times in the past, I don't make this stuff up. First, on the last day of school before Christmas break two teachers left the school permanently. One left to join some Jaguars and the other left for reasons that thoroughly tick me off. So what is the big deal with this? See the SQR commentary above and again turnover hinders any attempt at academic progress.
During the Bag of Cheer assembly process with the T6 scholars one of them asked me this question. Why is it that when you say the word together your lips stay apart and when you say the word separate your lips come together? This is also from a T6 scholar. Who put the alphabet together and why did this person put the alphabet in the order it is in? My response to both questions was quite simple, Google it.
For several weeks now I've been meeting a T2-M scholar in the main office of the school to read. Surprisingly, as others didn't think this would work out, the scholar willing wants to read with me. On this particular day I arrived in the office with three books to read. I let the scholar pick out the first book to read and, as I always do, I read the title of the book, tell the scholar the name of the author, the name of the illustrator, and then open the book so the scholar can start reading. This day was different as the scholar told me he didn't want to read. I looked at the scholar and said, "why don't you want to read?" The T2-M scholar looked up at me and said, "I can't read because I have to go poop."
That's it. I'll be out of school until January 7, 2019, so this blog may be dormant for a while. Thanks for following along for another year and Merry Christmas to all.
Sunday, December 23, 2018
Sunday, December 16, 2018
So Much At Stake
Saturday, December 15, 2018
This past Tuesday was the day of our School Quality Review (SQR). I mentioned the SQR briefly in my last blog post so I'll give you a refresher course so you don't have to go back to the last blog post and reread it. My school, the one that I have been at for the past six and a half school years, the one that I've thoroughly enjoyed going to, the one that I will continue to go to for as long as they can put up with me, has received a failure grade from the State of Indiana for the past three years. The more that I think about this failure grade the more I think to myself, "how did we get here?" I believe it was four years ago that our school grade was a B so what went wrong? I have an opinion that would be quite a lengthy list of reasons but I won't bore you with the entire list. I'll keep it short.
First off, when I walked into the school to start my seventh year I met the new BigB. The new BigB was the fourth one in six years. Four leadership changes in six years and four different strategies to move the school forward. That is frustrating as you can't see academic growth when you keep changing directions. Second, at the end of my fourth year at the school there was a mass departure of teachers from the first floor. If my memory serves me correctly, eight of the eleven teachers on the first floor, moved on to other teaching opportunities. When you add the number of teachers that left the school in my fifth and sixth year you are now in double digits when it comes to teachers leaving the school. Numbers like that hurt a school. How do you keep any academic continuity in the school when teachers are departing at such a high rate? Here is my last one and then I'll move on. During my fifth year, discipline for inappropriate, if not downright awful, behavior took a back seat to social emotional learning and a directive that school suspensions are the pipeline to prison and they needed to be severally reduced. This last one, more than the others, used in combination with a huge emphasis on kindness rather an consequences, in my opinion, is the cause of our school's decline.
Moving on and here is how the day of the SQR went in my school and, most importantly, in T4's classroom. I was sitting at my half round table out in the hallway grading a quiz when I first encountered our guests. As they were approaching I looked up and one of the guests said, "good morning, how are you doing today?" I responded, "I'm grading a math quiz and knowing that we are having guests in the school and that I have no idea who you are I'll just say that I'm doing excellent." That drew a smile from a couple of our guests as they then proceeded down the hallway and I thought to myself, "at least I know they can smile."
Sunday, December 16, 2018
The scheduled arrival time of our guests in T4's classroom was 12:05pm with a schedule departure time of 12:25pm. With so much at stake, in this short twenty minute span of time, it was natural for tension being a little high. How high, one of us had to go pee four times in less than an hour. The morning activities leading up to our SQR time was the normal schedule with one small exception. One of the T4-M's was in a bit of a defiant mood and there was a concern on T4's part as to how this scholar would behave when our guests were in the room. "Schultz, when our guests arrive you need to sit right next to T4-M," was my directive.
It's now approaching noon and T4 decides that it would be nice if one of our scholars would greet our guests at the classroom door when they arrived. T4-F was chosen and there was a brief rehearsal session on what T4-F would say to our guests when they arrived. After the rehearsal we were ready. It's now 12:05pm, no guests, they are late. It's now 12:08pm, no guests, they are even later. It's now 12:10pm, getting really late as twenty five percent of the time allocated for T4's review is gone. It's now decision time for T4. Does she start the lesson without them or continue to wait? She waited. It's now 12:12pm, seven minutes late, when they arrived at the classroom door. I was sitting at the far side of the room next to my assigned scholar so I could not hear clearly the exchange of words between T4-F and our guests. What I did hear clearly was one of our guests say to T4-F, "I'll just take a seat." In walked three guests, all with a dour look on their face, and they took seats among the scholars.
The lesson was on angles and T4 began the lesson. "Eyes on me, say as I say, do as I do," was the directive to the scholars. "Everybody stand," they stood up. T4 then said, "turn ninety degrees" and she jumped up turning ninety degrees to her left and the scholars mirrored her. She then said, "return to your starting point," jumped up, turned, and was again facing the scholars and they matched her. The next two turns were one hundred and eighty degrees and then two hundred and seventy degrees. That went smoothly with all of the scholars actively participating. Next up is the final turn, three hundred and sixty degrees and all I could think was, "please God, don't let anyone get hurt." "This is the last one," T4 said to the scholars. "When you do this one you should all be facing me when you land. Are you ready? Go." They all did it. I don't think anyone even lost their balance and fell. They were all so excited that they actually just did a three hundred and sixty degree turn that would have surely put a smile on Michael Jordan's face.
The scholars are now back in their seats. On their desks were two round (circles) pieces of paper, one white and one pink. Both pieces of paper were cut so that the cut line resembled the radius line of a circle and T4 continued the lesson. "On your desk are two circles, one white and one pink. How many degrees are they in a circle?" A number of hands went up and the response was three hundred and sixty degrees. "Now, connect your two circles along the cut line so that they are hooked together." That was completed with a minimal amount of help and the lesson continued. "Turn your two circles so that a ninety degree angle is shown but it has to be in pink." That was completed and so was showing the straight angle as well as the two hundred and seventy degree angle. Now comes the challenging part. "In order to get a two hundred and seventy degree angle you have to move past three right angles. How do you know that three right angles equals two hundred and seventy degrees?" T4-F immediately raised her hand. "Ninety plus ninety equals one hundred and eighty and then you add another ninety and you get to two hundred and seventy degrees." She nailed it doing mental math, no paper and pencil, no calculator.
T4 then proceeded to ask the next question. "If a right angle is ninety degrees, how many degrees are there in half of a right angle?" There was a slight delay and then hands went up. Forty-five degrees was the agreed upon response from the scholars. With time moving quickly with our guests in the room T4 continued. "Show me in pink the two hundred and seventy degree angle. Now I want you to add forty-five degrees to the two hundred and seventy degree angle and then hold up your paper when you are finished." Again, minimal help was needed. Here comes the part that just blew me away. T4 speaking. "Now tell me how many degrees are showing in pink." A short delay and then a hand went up. It was T4-M and he said, "three hundred and fifteen degrees." I don't know what T4 was thinking when T4-M answered the question but I know T4-M, as I help him a lot, and I was stunned that he got the right answer doing mental math. Back to T4, "how did you arrive at three hundred and fifteen degrees?" T4-M, "I started at two hundred and seventy degrees, I knew that half of ninety degrees was forty five degrees, so I just added forty-five degrees to two hundred and seventy degrees and got three hundred and fifteen degrees." T4-M just nailed the hardest question of the lesson and I was so proud of him. It's now 12:23pm and T4 was about to continue when our guests stood up and walked out of the classroom, two minutes early. Here is my big unknown as they departed. I don't recall hearing them saying any thing to T4 or to the scholars. These dour faced people just stood up and walked out of the classroom.
The SQR you just read about occurred on the seventy-fifth day of the school year. I've watched T4 present a math lesson for all of those seventy-five days. The vast majority of those math lessons went very well. There were only a couple occasions where the math lessons struggled but that was not due to the teacher, it was mostly do to too many scholars who just couldn't get there act together. As far as the math lesson on SQR day, I can some it up in a few words, T4 nailed it, the scholars nailed it, it was a perfect lesson plan.
The entire staff, using an analogy from the book series The Game of Thrones, was called before the King to explain their short comings. Each teacher was given a twenty minute block of time, in T4's case she had only eleven minutes as the dour faced guests arrived late and left early, to state their case. Well, the teachers have stated their case, so now what? The King has options; allow the school to proceed as it is, make improvement recommendations, replace the leadership team, or send the teachers and the leadership team to the King's Justice, also known as the royal executioner, to have their heads lopped off, forced to find a new teaching positions, and the King assigns an entire new teaching staff to the school.
So now everyone waits. We are five schools days from the start of Christmas break. We are nine days from Christmas. We are fifteen days from a new year and everyone waits while this hangs over their heads. Will my head be placed on the royal executions block? Welcome to the teaching profession where years of dedication to their profession can be lopped off after a twenty minute presentation.
This past Tuesday was the day of our School Quality Review (SQR). I mentioned the SQR briefly in my last blog post so I'll give you a refresher course so you don't have to go back to the last blog post and reread it. My school, the one that I have been at for the past six and a half school years, the one that I've thoroughly enjoyed going to, the one that I will continue to go to for as long as they can put up with me, has received a failure grade from the State of Indiana for the past three years. The more that I think about this failure grade the more I think to myself, "how did we get here?" I believe it was four years ago that our school grade was a B so what went wrong? I have an opinion that would be quite a lengthy list of reasons but I won't bore you with the entire list. I'll keep it short.
First off, when I walked into the school to start my seventh year I met the new BigB. The new BigB was the fourth one in six years. Four leadership changes in six years and four different strategies to move the school forward. That is frustrating as you can't see academic growth when you keep changing directions. Second, at the end of my fourth year at the school there was a mass departure of teachers from the first floor. If my memory serves me correctly, eight of the eleven teachers on the first floor, moved on to other teaching opportunities. When you add the number of teachers that left the school in my fifth and sixth year you are now in double digits when it comes to teachers leaving the school. Numbers like that hurt a school. How do you keep any academic continuity in the school when teachers are departing at such a high rate? Here is my last one and then I'll move on. During my fifth year, discipline for inappropriate, if not downright awful, behavior took a back seat to social emotional learning and a directive that school suspensions are the pipeline to prison and they needed to be severally reduced. This last one, more than the others, used in combination with a huge emphasis on kindness rather an consequences, in my opinion, is the cause of our school's decline.
Moving on and here is how the day of the SQR went in my school and, most importantly, in T4's classroom. I was sitting at my half round table out in the hallway grading a quiz when I first encountered our guests. As they were approaching I looked up and one of the guests said, "good morning, how are you doing today?" I responded, "I'm grading a math quiz and knowing that we are having guests in the school and that I have no idea who you are I'll just say that I'm doing excellent." That drew a smile from a couple of our guests as they then proceeded down the hallway and I thought to myself, "at least I know they can smile."
Sunday, December 16, 2018
The scheduled arrival time of our guests in T4's classroom was 12:05pm with a schedule departure time of 12:25pm. With so much at stake, in this short twenty minute span of time, it was natural for tension being a little high. How high, one of us had to go pee four times in less than an hour. The morning activities leading up to our SQR time was the normal schedule with one small exception. One of the T4-M's was in a bit of a defiant mood and there was a concern on T4's part as to how this scholar would behave when our guests were in the room. "Schultz, when our guests arrive you need to sit right next to T4-M," was my directive.
It's now approaching noon and T4 decides that it would be nice if one of our scholars would greet our guests at the classroom door when they arrived. T4-F was chosen and there was a brief rehearsal session on what T4-F would say to our guests when they arrived. After the rehearsal we were ready. It's now 12:05pm, no guests, they are late. It's now 12:08pm, no guests, they are even later. It's now 12:10pm, getting really late as twenty five percent of the time allocated for T4's review is gone. It's now decision time for T4. Does she start the lesson without them or continue to wait? She waited. It's now 12:12pm, seven minutes late, when they arrived at the classroom door. I was sitting at the far side of the room next to my assigned scholar so I could not hear clearly the exchange of words between T4-F and our guests. What I did hear clearly was one of our guests say to T4-F, "I'll just take a seat." In walked three guests, all with a dour look on their face, and they took seats among the scholars.
The lesson was on angles and T4 began the lesson. "Eyes on me, say as I say, do as I do," was the directive to the scholars. "Everybody stand," they stood up. T4 then said, "turn ninety degrees" and she jumped up turning ninety degrees to her left and the scholars mirrored her. She then said, "return to your starting point," jumped up, turned, and was again facing the scholars and they matched her. The next two turns were one hundred and eighty degrees and then two hundred and seventy degrees. That went smoothly with all of the scholars actively participating. Next up is the final turn, three hundred and sixty degrees and all I could think was, "please God, don't let anyone get hurt." "This is the last one," T4 said to the scholars. "When you do this one you should all be facing me when you land. Are you ready? Go." They all did it. I don't think anyone even lost their balance and fell. They were all so excited that they actually just did a three hundred and sixty degree turn that would have surely put a smile on Michael Jordan's face.
The scholars are now back in their seats. On their desks were two round (circles) pieces of paper, one white and one pink. Both pieces of paper were cut so that the cut line resembled the radius line of a circle and T4 continued the lesson. "On your desk are two circles, one white and one pink. How many degrees are they in a circle?" A number of hands went up and the response was three hundred and sixty degrees. "Now, connect your two circles along the cut line so that they are hooked together." That was completed with a minimal amount of help and the lesson continued. "Turn your two circles so that a ninety degree angle is shown but it has to be in pink." That was completed and so was showing the straight angle as well as the two hundred and seventy degree angle. Now comes the challenging part. "In order to get a two hundred and seventy degree angle you have to move past three right angles. How do you know that three right angles equals two hundred and seventy degrees?" T4-F immediately raised her hand. "Ninety plus ninety equals one hundred and eighty and then you add another ninety and you get to two hundred and seventy degrees." She nailed it doing mental math, no paper and pencil, no calculator.
T4 then proceeded to ask the next question. "If a right angle is ninety degrees, how many degrees are there in half of a right angle?" There was a slight delay and then hands went up. Forty-five degrees was the agreed upon response from the scholars. With time moving quickly with our guests in the room T4 continued. "Show me in pink the two hundred and seventy degree angle. Now I want you to add forty-five degrees to the two hundred and seventy degree angle and then hold up your paper when you are finished." Again, minimal help was needed. Here comes the part that just blew me away. T4 speaking. "Now tell me how many degrees are showing in pink." A short delay and then a hand went up. It was T4-M and he said, "three hundred and fifteen degrees." I don't know what T4 was thinking when T4-M answered the question but I know T4-M, as I help him a lot, and I was stunned that he got the right answer doing mental math. Back to T4, "how did you arrive at three hundred and fifteen degrees?" T4-M, "I started at two hundred and seventy degrees, I knew that half of ninety degrees was forty five degrees, so I just added forty-five degrees to two hundred and seventy degrees and got three hundred and fifteen degrees." T4-M just nailed the hardest question of the lesson and I was so proud of him. It's now 12:23pm and T4 was about to continue when our guests stood up and walked out of the classroom, two minutes early. Here is my big unknown as they departed. I don't recall hearing them saying any thing to T4 or to the scholars. These dour faced people just stood up and walked out of the classroom.
The SQR you just read about occurred on the seventy-fifth day of the school year. I've watched T4 present a math lesson for all of those seventy-five days. The vast majority of those math lessons went very well. There were only a couple occasions where the math lessons struggled but that was not due to the teacher, it was mostly do to too many scholars who just couldn't get there act together. As far as the math lesson on SQR day, I can some it up in a few words, T4 nailed it, the scholars nailed it, it was a perfect lesson plan.
The entire staff, using an analogy from the book series The Game of Thrones, was called before the King to explain their short comings. Each teacher was given a twenty minute block of time, in T4's case she had only eleven minutes as the dour faced guests arrived late and left early, to state their case. Well, the teachers have stated their case, so now what? The King has options; allow the school to proceed as it is, make improvement recommendations, replace the leadership team, or send the teachers and the leadership team to the King's Justice, also known as the royal executioner, to have their heads lopped off, forced to find a new teaching positions, and the King assigns an entire new teaching staff to the school.
So now everyone waits. We are five schools days from the start of Christmas break. We are nine days from Christmas. We are fifteen days from a new year and everyone waits while this hangs over their heads. Will my head be placed on the royal executions block? Welcome to the teaching profession where years of dedication to their profession can be lopped off after a twenty minute presentation.
Sunday, December 9, 2018
An Oxymoron
Sunday, December 9, 2018
An oxymoron is a figure of speech in which apparently contradictory terms appear in conjunction. I have a few examples that I pulled off the internet after doing a Google search: jumbo shrimp, deafening silence, government intelligence, and rap music. Sadly, the Google listing is not up to date as I discovered one during a fourth grade beginning geometry lesson on angles. For those of you that are of my generation, you know the type, gray in the hair, long in the tooth, a product of old school discipline, and math where you borrowed instead of regrouping, I'm going to do an angle refresher course: right angle, acute angle, and obtuse angle. Okay, now I'll bring you up to date as apparently some pointed headed intellectual with a PhD, who needs to inflate his/her ego, while working at a prominent university research center, has decided that we need a new angle, so he/she came up with one and called it's the straight angle.
I was sitting in the back of the classroom where I have a really swell view of what goes on in the front of the room. On this day, our student teacher was in charge of the classroom, T4 was outside the room, and the lesson was on angles. With the student teacher up front my instructions from T4 was to limit my time and involvement in the classroom as the student teacher needed to have complete control of the classroom as a learning experience so I was sitting quietly observing. First up was the right angle. That was followed by the acute angle. Finally, the obtuse angle and I'm thinking to myself the student teacher did a nice job. Then the student teacher told the scholars that there was one more angle to draw and that got my immediate attention. What? There are three angles: right, acute, and obtuse so what is the student teacher talking about? I found out real quick, the straight angle. The student teacher, using the document camera drew a straight angle and projected it onto the big screen so everyone could see it. As soon as the student teacher was finished drawing the angle I thought to myself, "that is not an angle, that is a line."
Straight is defined as extending or moving uniformly in one direction only; without a curve or bend. Angle is defined as the amount of turn between two lines around their common point. Two completely different meanings so how can you have a straight angle? Truly a dilemma for me so I guess I'll defer to one of the Marys' for some guidance. So which of my Mary friends do I ask. I know the Immaculate Mary, Bad Mary, St. Mary, and Minar Mary. Maybe Minar Mary can help me out with this oxymoron. Should you like to offer an opinion there is a picture of a line and a straight angle on the ride side of the blog. Feel free to state your case.
T4 is one of the shining lights in my school and you are about to find out why. The lesson is geometry with an emphasis on lines: point, line, line segment, ray, parallel, perpendicular, and intersecting. T4 is in the front of the room, "stand up, do as I do, say as I say," and the scholars are mirroring her actions and words. "Parallel lines," her hands go straight up and the scholars mirror her. "Line," and her hands are pointing straight out to her sides with palms open and facing down and the scholars mirror her. "Line segment," her hands stay straight out to her sides but her hands make a fist and the scholars mirror her. "Ray," both arms are straight out to the side. One hand is opened with palm down and the other hand is in a fist and the scholars mirror her. "Perpendicular," and her arms cross in front of her making a plus sign and the scholars mirror her. "Intersecting," and she drops her arms down in front of her and crosses them and the scholars mirror her. Now that the scholars have the general idea T4 starts again. This time, however, she doubles her pace. T4 is doing geometry with an emphasis on lines and the scholars are mirroring her every word and arm movement and best of all, they are having fun.
T4 is one of the shining lights in our school and you are about to find out why, round two. The lesson is lines of symmetry and in order to do this assignment T4 had to take a profile picture of everyone of the scholars and then print them out in black and white. "Schultz, I have a project for you. Take some white card stock with you and all of these pictures. Cut the pictures, as close as you can, right down the middle of the scholars faces. After you do that glue on half of the scholar's picture on the left side of the card stock and then bring everything back to me." "Aye, aye, Captain," and off I go,
The line of symmetry lesson began with a definition of the word symmetry. From their T4 held up a couple of objects to show the lines of symmetry. The first was a heart folded in half and there was the single line of symmetry. Next, if my memory is correct, was the rectangle and when folded in half a couple different ways you could see the two lines of symmetry. Then, to throw the scholars a bit of a curve ball, T4 held up a circle and asked the scholars how many lines of symmetry were in circle. The responses were not even close. As the guesses were coming forth I was sitting next to T4-M, a peanut of a scholar who is also a minimalist when it comes to doing work. All of a sudden I hear him say, "infinite." Half stunned that T4-M knew the correct answer I tapped him on the shoulder and said, "that's the right answer, raise you hand and tell T4," and he did.
Now comes the fun part. T4 is at her document camera with one of the half pictures that is on the card stock. The picture is then projected onto the big screen in the front of the classroom so all the scholars can see what she is doing. Next, T4 takes this plastic device, sadly I can't recall what she said it was, and placed it on the cut line of the picture on the card stock. Once she did this you could see the half picture that is on the left side of the card stock and some how it flipped the picture onto the blank side of the card stock. Then, using a pencil, all the scholars had to do was trace the image on the right side of the card stock to complete the picture of their face.
I know, my explanation is pretty poor but hopefully this will help. On the right hand side of the blog is my half picture. T4 placed that plastic object on the cut line of my picture and then trace out the other side of my face. Pretty impressive and best of all, the scholars were having fun doing lines of symmetry, and all their completed lines of symmetry faces on are the bulletin board in the hallway.
Mark your calendars for Tuesday, December 11th, as the school that I have enjoyed working at for almost six and a half years now is in the crosshairs and I have to believe that every member of the staff is on edge. For the past three school years my school was given an F grade by the state of Indiana. When any school reaches this point concerned individuals, primarily bureaucrats who have never, ever, entered this school to see what the challenges are, get involved. These concerned individuals will be in the school on Tuesday, December 11th to conduct a School Quality Review. Their plan is to visit every classroom, talk to each member of the school staff, and I believe that includes volunteers, take their collective notes, gather in a room somewhere and then make their decision. Keep in mind, during the time it takes these concerned individuals to make a decision, every member of the staff has to wait for the results that will directly impact their job.
So what are the options that these concerned individuals have following the School Quality Review? I'm not an expert on the matter but here is my best guess. One, do nothing as they feel comfortable that the school is properly functioning. Two, offer recommendations to improve the school's practices and schedule another School Quality Review in a couple years. Three, make a change in leadership. Four, remove every teacher and administrator from the school, restart the school as either an innovation school or charter school, and essentially start over with an entire new team and an entirely new direction.
My anxiety level is rising as we approach Tuesday and I'm just a volunteer. Imagine the anxiety level of my teaching colleagues, some who have been in this school for years as Tuesday approaches. Imagine how my teaching colleagues will feel at around 4:00pm on Tuesday when these concerned individuals, who will spend maybe an hour in each teachers classroom, will decide if a collective group of teachers that has been successful in this school for years, if not decades, can remain at this school. Welcome to the teaching profession.
School Quality Review
An oxymoron is a figure of speech in which apparently contradictory terms appear in conjunction. I have a few examples that I pulled off the internet after doing a Google search: jumbo shrimp, deafening silence, government intelligence, and rap music. Sadly, the Google listing is not up to date as I discovered one during a fourth grade beginning geometry lesson on angles. For those of you that are of my generation, you know the type, gray in the hair, long in the tooth, a product of old school discipline, and math where you borrowed instead of regrouping, I'm going to do an angle refresher course: right angle, acute angle, and obtuse angle. Okay, now I'll bring you up to date as apparently some pointed headed intellectual with a PhD, who needs to inflate his/her ego, while working at a prominent university research center, has decided that we need a new angle, so he/she came up with one and called it's the straight angle.
I was sitting in the back of the classroom where I have a really swell view of what goes on in the front of the room. On this day, our student teacher was in charge of the classroom, T4 was outside the room, and the lesson was on angles. With the student teacher up front my instructions from T4 was to limit my time and involvement in the classroom as the student teacher needed to have complete control of the classroom as a learning experience so I was sitting quietly observing. First up was the right angle. That was followed by the acute angle. Finally, the obtuse angle and I'm thinking to myself the student teacher did a nice job. Then the student teacher told the scholars that there was one more angle to draw and that got my immediate attention. What? There are three angles: right, acute, and obtuse so what is the student teacher talking about? I found out real quick, the straight angle. The student teacher, using the document camera drew a straight angle and projected it onto the big screen so everyone could see it. As soon as the student teacher was finished drawing the angle I thought to myself, "that is not an angle, that is a line."
Straight is defined as extending or moving uniformly in one direction only; without a curve or bend. Angle is defined as the amount of turn between two lines around their common point. Two completely different meanings so how can you have a straight angle? Truly a dilemma for me so I guess I'll defer to one of the Marys' for some guidance. So which of my Mary friends do I ask. I know the Immaculate Mary, Bad Mary, St. Mary, and Minar Mary. Maybe Minar Mary can help me out with this oxymoron. Should you like to offer an opinion there is a picture of a line and a straight angle on the ride side of the blog. Feel free to state your case.
T4 is one of the shining lights in my school and you are about to find out why. The lesson is geometry with an emphasis on lines: point, line, line segment, ray, parallel, perpendicular, and intersecting. T4 is in the front of the room, "stand up, do as I do, say as I say," and the scholars are mirroring her actions and words. "Parallel lines," her hands go straight up and the scholars mirror her. "Line," and her hands are pointing straight out to her sides with palms open and facing down and the scholars mirror her. "Line segment," her hands stay straight out to her sides but her hands make a fist and the scholars mirror her. "Ray," both arms are straight out to the side. One hand is opened with palm down and the other hand is in a fist and the scholars mirror her. "Perpendicular," and her arms cross in front of her making a plus sign and the scholars mirror her. "Intersecting," and she drops her arms down in front of her and crosses them and the scholars mirror her. Now that the scholars have the general idea T4 starts again. This time, however, she doubles her pace. T4 is doing geometry with an emphasis on lines and the scholars are mirroring her every word and arm movement and best of all, they are having fun.
T4 is one of the shining lights in our school and you are about to find out why, round two. The lesson is lines of symmetry and in order to do this assignment T4 had to take a profile picture of everyone of the scholars and then print them out in black and white. "Schultz, I have a project for you. Take some white card stock with you and all of these pictures. Cut the pictures, as close as you can, right down the middle of the scholars faces. After you do that glue on half of the scholar's picture on the left side of the card stock and then bring everything back to me." "Aye, aye, Captain," and off I go,
The line of symmetry lesson began with a definition of the word symmetry. From their T4 held up a couple of objects to show the lines of symmetry. The first was a heart folded in half and there was the single line of symmetry. Next, if my memory is correct, was the rectangle and when folded in half a couple different ways you could see the two lines of symmetry. Then, to throw the scholars a bit of a curve ball, T4 held up a circle and asked the scholars how many lines of symmetry were in circle. The responses were not even close. As the guesses were coming forth I was sitting next to T4-M, a peanut of a scholar who is also a minimalist when it comes to doing work. All of a sudden I hear him say, "infinite." Half stunned that T4-M knew the correct answer I tapped him on the shoulder and said, "that's the right answer, raise you hand and tell T4," and he did.
Now comes the fun part. T4 is at her document camera with one of the half pictures that is on the card stock. The picture is then projected onto the big screen in the front of the classroom so all the scholars can see what she is doing. Next, T4 takes this plastic device, sadly I can't recall what she said it was, and placed it on the cut line of the picture on the card stock. Once she did this you could see the half picture that is on the left side of the card stock and some how it flipped the picture onto the blank side of the card stock. Then, using a pencil, all the scholars had to do was trace the image on the right side of the card stock to complete the picture of their face.
I know, my explanation is pretty poor but hopefully this will help. On the right hand side of the blog is my half picture. T4 placed that plastic object on the cut line of my picture and then trace out the other side of my face. Pretty impressive and best of all, the scholars were having fun doing lines of symmetry, and all their completed lines of symmetry faces on are the bulletin board in the hallway.
Mark your calendars for Tuesday, December 11th, as the school that I have enjoyed working at for almost six and a half years now is in the crosshairs and I have to believe that every member of the staff is on edge. For the past three school years my school was given an F grade by the state of Indiana. When any school reaches this point concerned individuals, primarily bureaucrats who have never, ever, entered this school to see what the challenges are, get involved. These concerned individuals will be in the school on Tuesday, December 11th to conduct a School Quality Review. Their plan is to visit every classroom, talk to each member of the school staff, and I believe that includes volunteers, take their collective notes, gather in a room somewhere and then make their decision. Keep in mind, during the time it takes these concerned individuals to make a decision, every member of the staff has to wait for the results that will directly impact their job.
So what are the options that these concerned individuals have following the School Quality Review? I'm not an expert on the matter but here is my best guess. One, do nothing as they feel comfortable that the school is properly functioning. Two, offer recommendations to improve the school's practices and schedule another School Quality Review in a couple years. Three, make a change in leadership. Four, remove every teacher and administrator from the school, restart the school as either an innovation school or charter school, and essentially start over with an entire new team and an entirely new direction.
My anxiety level is rising as we approach Tuesday and I'm just a volunteer. Imagine the anxiety level of my teaching colleagues, some who have been in this school for years as Tuesday approaches. Imagine how my teaching colleagues will feel at around 4:00pm on Tuesday when these concerned individuals, who will spend maybe an hour in each teachers classroom, will decide if a collective group of teachers that has been successful in this school for years, if not decades, can remain at this school. Welcome to the teaching profession.
School Quality Review
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