The Teachers' Scrounge

Schools Respond to Gas Prices

2008-08-07T11:29:00.002-05:00

If you haven't heard, there are a handful of school districts that have implemented a four-day school week in order to cut transportation costs. I think it's an elegant solution, reducing your bus transportation budget by almost 20%. Some districts have begun bringing in students 4 days a week and making Friday a half-day workday for faculty.

In Texas, many districts hold summer school only Monday through Thursday, and this last summer some of the holdouts switched to the short week.

Recently, USA Today reported on some college campuses that are discouraging students from bringing cars to school. Some school were trying to train their students to be eco-friendly, other campuses were trying to avoid building parking garages, but some of their solutions are creative.

This fall, Ripon College in Ripon, Wis., is offering freshmen free mountain bikes, helmets and locks in exchange for a promise not to bring a car to campus. The $300-per-student cost is funded by private donations.

Other schools are running bike repair shops or bake-sharing programs. (Texas A&M tried a "Borrow-A-Bike program when I was on campus, but had to strike the program under liability concerns. I am curious how the new programs at these other campuses are different.)

California considers prizes for test scores

2008-08-03T13:44:00.003-05:00

Evidently Governor Arnold doesn't read my blog. California is considering "non-monetary incentives" to students for achievement (or improvement) on state tests. You can read about the proposal.

This could go wrong so many ways. I went to school with kids who would have tanked the test to make it easier to score an "improvement" incentive later on. But the problem is, studies show this won't help math scores.

I have a theory why this is true. Most of our kids can read, and most of them are fluent in English. Our reading tests don't require a lot of outside knowledge (they ask, "What is the main idea in paragraph 3?" or "The underlined work in paragraph 2 is closest in meaning to which of the following?"). The math test, however, requires a lot of outside information (they ask, "Which of these forms a Pythagorean Triple?" or "Which measure of central tendency will be affected to the most?").

In short, a student who buckles down on the day of the reading test can boost his or her score a few points. (I was in 8th grade before I realized my score went up if I actually read the entire passage!) There is no equivalent on the math test. Buckling down on the day of the math test won't do much. There are so many pieces to the math puzzle that a student has to collect over several years. Reading the entire math problem does me no good if I cannot remember the difference between mean and mode. I can recheck my answers, but if I write my proportion upside-down, I will never get the right answer.

Kids these days

2008-08-03T13:37:00.002-05:00

Interesting USA TODAY story summarizes an annual study measuring trends in teenagers -- from reading ability to church attendance and even suicide rates. In short, the study shows only slight changes over the last 28 years. Is that what you would have predicted?

Math Gender Gap Gone?

2008-08-03T13:12:00.002-05:00

Okay, it is back to school time. I've already spent two days working with the math department, and our staff retreat is tomorrow, so we can all expect more activity on this blog.

To start with, here is a recent news article from Chicago: Girls match boys on tests in math: study. The researchers acquired their results by looking at test scores from state "No Child Left Behind" exams as well as SAT scores. They found no disparity between male and female performance levels.

I find is suspect that they did not create their own test and sample to gather data. States have a lot of pressure to generate NCLB results. And the goal is to get every student to the "acceptable" level. That means resources are moved around so that everyone will reach the same level of achievement. In short, I hypothesize that the parity is due to the school's test prep for that particular test, and may not translate into complete math parity. To support my argument, I offer this quote from the article:

They also looked for gender discrepancies at the highest levels of mathematical ability, checking to see if more boys fell into the top percentiles of scores than girls.

"While we did find more boys than girls above the 99th percentile at a 2-to-1 ratio, still, 33 percent of those kids who are above the 99th percentile are girls," she said.

The study acknowledges a disparity in SAT scores (the one test in the study where students are NOT prepped to meet identical achievement levels), but claims that is a "sampling artifact" because fewer males take the test, so the male sample must be smarter. (Yeah, so what do the writing tests show?!) The study also points out that, mysteriously, women are still heavily underrepresented in math and science professions.

"One Nation Left Behind"

2008-07-26T12:05:00.002-05:00

Okay, continuing my recent trend of video posts, we have a commercial from a group called Strong American Schools. This non-partisan group wants to make education part of the discussion in this presidential race. The pessimistic title of this article is the title of their ad.

Another TeacherTube Video

2008-07-14T21:42:00.000-05:00

Having fun, playing with TeacherTube:

TeacherTube Video

2008-07-13T01:10:00.002-05:00

New experiment here... I've heard about TeacherTube, and I had a couple of video ideas that were rolling around in my head. I put together an animation that teaches perimeter. You can enjoy it here. Feedback always welcome (I know that I need better lighting in future animations).

Texas Classroom Teachers Association

2008-07-12T01:40:00.002-05:00

I've spent the last couple of days at a leadership conference for Texas Classroom Teachers Association. It was a lot of fun, and I learned quite a bit.

TCTA always points out that they are the only Texas teacher group that is exclusively for teachers... members are not administrators, board of trustees, bus drivers, etc. I never really understood why that was a big deal before, so let me try to summarize the problem. The vast majority of teacher "issues" relate to supervisors. If you and your principal are members of the same organization, they can't represent either one of you in any legal proceedings. If your organization represents teachers, adminstrators, and staff, who does it fight for in the legislature? When principals ask teachers to give up conference periods and duty-free lunches on TAKS testing days, who does your professional organization back in that fight?

Some other advantages of TCTA:

Highest Lawyer-to-Member ratio of any Texas teacher group. TCTA employs nine full-time (very experienced) attorneys. When you call TCTA with a problem, you speak directly to an attorney. You aren't routed to a staff member or paralegal who decides if you get to talk to a lawyer. That means when you call TCTA, your discussion is protected under attorney-client priveledge. If you talk to another organization's paralegal, you have no such protection.
Highest liability coverage. TCTA provides members with $7 million in professional liability insurance, $2 million in civil rights coverage, and a long list of other coverage. In the event that you are involved in an issue with another TCTA member, TCTA has a Teacher Defense Fund it can tap so that each member can get legal representation without a conflict of interest.
Information. TCTA updates members on important issues affecting educators. From sex offenders in your classroom to the legality of "trade-and-grade," TCTA lets you know what's going on.
Member discounts. ...at hotels, car rentals, cell phone, etc.
A voice in Austin. TCTA's politcal action committee, ACT, actively works for teachers. They write legislation and work with members of congress to get it sponsored and passed. It has been TEN YEARS since any other Texas teacher organization has passed legislation. Something that I appreciate -- TCTA does NOT endorse candidates. They will inform you about the issues hitting the legislature in the next term, but they don't tell you who to vote for. (And that means they are never locked out of the halls of power because they backed the losing candidate.)
Involvement. As a teacher, I want to improve the world of education and be involved. TCTA does that. You get the support of the local chapter, the state organization, and they're the most reasonably priced!

New book: Problems of the Week

2008-06-29T23:33:00.003-05:00

I have a new book available for online orders (and you can always view details on all my books along with previews at First Hand Press).

My latest book, Problems of the Week: Developing Mathematic Thinking for Middle School Students, is a collection of thought-provoking math problems for middle schoolers. Each question is a creative problem that gives students a chance to use their math skills in new ways.

Estimate the area of the parking lots at Mall of the Americas
Use a cricket to calculate temperature
Measure how many miles Barry Bonds ran in a season of home runs

Each problem set is photocopy ready with attractive clipart. Teach students that math is more than 30-second arithmetic!

Print edition: $11.99
E-Book: $4.99

InterNOT!

2008-06-26T19:12:00.003-05:00

They tell me that the Chinese work for "crisis" is composed of two characters: Danger and Opportunity. If that's true, that the internet is an education crisis!

Yes, yes, it's thriving with opportunity, but, man, you've got to watch those kiddos like a hawk! I'm constantly amazed by what they get around the internet filters. Google image search is blocked? Then used the Danish google site! (Who thought of that!?) Sometimes they're foolish enough to show me what they've accomplished. Then I trudge off to the campus technology rep, and VOILA! Look what I've accomplished! You're BLOCKED!

Usually the kiddos try to excuse their contraband. "Look, I'm playing math games!" or "I get more work done if I listen to vulgar music while I study!" But other times there is no excuse. Recently in the computer lab a student was trying to hide an internet explorer window where he was reading "Wikipedia: History of the Bloods." Wow. You can't even pretend you're on-task with that one. Especially since there are no research papers in summer school

New book

2008-06-19T17:31:00.004-05:00

So here's the story behind this book... My wife is an attorney, and she tells me that one of her law professors used to tell a "Joke of the Day." He would use it as a transition or to wake up the class or whatever. So she said I should try that in my classroom.

Yeah, well a middle school teacher faces a few extra challenges there. College classes meet two or three times a day for 16 weeks. Law professors can tell racy jokes, blonde jokes, religious jokes, death jokes... things I'm not comfortable telling to 12 year olds in my classroom.

But I tried it! The kids loved it. Until I ran out of jokes. It's a good time filler when three kids are still copying notes and you're about to lose the kids who are waiting. I also love telling the Joke of the Day right after someone leaves for the restroom. Next time maybe they'll go before class.

Since I didn't want to run out of jokes, I tracked down 180 jokes that I felt were appropriate for 8th graders, then wrote 'em all down. Then made a nice cover for them and put them on a print-on-demand website. Makes sense, right? You can view a preview of the book at its sales page. It's available in a print edition or as an e-book that you can download.

Get the Lead Out!

2008-06-19T15:03:00.002-05:00

I was visiting with a summer school teacher today about our pencil supply, and one thing led to another until I found this discussion online. This is from the ProTeacher forum. I am not familiar with the forum, but this particular discussion thread was very thorough and useful regarding pencils in the classrooms. Here is a summary:

Dixon Ticonderoga pencils are the absolute best. They are more expensive, but they last longer, sharpen better, have quality erasers, cure cancer, etc. Some teachers required this particular brand of pencil in their school supplies and found that parents rebelled by sending no pencils at all.
Recommending mechanical pencils instead of wood pencils brings a series of special headaches -- kids don't realize they are almost out of lead, lead comes in multiple sizes, kids don't know how to use appropriate pressure and break the lead constantly.
Atlas Pencil Company sells misprinted pencils by the gross. You can visit their teacher site at www.forteachersonly.com.
Classroom Direct has good prices on pencils. You can view their catalog online.
Golf pencils are short stubbies with no eraser that you buy by the gross. It a bad idea. They only sharpen a few times, the kids need erasers, and many kids don't take care of them (or return them) because they are just silly little golf pencils.
Personal pencil sharpeners at each desk make a mess. Kids can be trained to be careful of this mess.
Kids oversharpen pencils.
Industrial pencil sharpeners exist. One teacher trains kids to use the electric sharpener -- "Count to three, then check."

Useless information: Lee Corso of ESPN's College Gameday works for Ticonderoga Pencils.

School Investigates Abuse Based on Psychic

2008-06-18T17:57:00.003-05:00

According to several reports from Canadian news sources, a teaching assistant visited a [alleged] psychic. Normally no big deal (though odd). The [self proclaimed] psychic asks, "Do you have a student whose name starts with a V?" The teaching assistant says that she does indeed have a student named Victoria. The psychic [sic] says, "I knew it. By the way, she's being sexually abused by a man in his 20s... or 30s... or some other age."

Then the story gets weird. The school reports this to the Children's Aid Society. Odd that the psychic didn't know things like... I dunno... Victoria is autistic and your little charade-for-hire is going to devastate a few people.

Okay, no that my mocking of psychics is over, a few things to keep in mind. If an educator reasonably believes that there is some form of abuse, that suspicion must be reported (in Texas, within 24 hours). In Texas, a report can be filed with Child Protective Services over the phone or online. You can learn more about reporting through their website.

Now, obviously the professionals among us will ignore the [pseudo-] psychics. But, if you are a teacher reading this, and if you ever suspect abuse based on what you have seen or heard, I implore you to make a report. The report will give you an opportunity to explain if your suspicion is based on an unusual event or a pattern of behavior. But your report may be the first domino in getting a kiddo the help that he or she NEEDS. Make the report. Please. But not based on information from your [charlatan] psychic.

Book Review: The Sea of Monsters

2008-06-17T19:40:00.003-05:00

Oh, yeah! Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon, returns for more trouble. Though a well contained story about facing famous Greek monsters to rescue some treasures, this book begins to outline a broader story. Author Rick Riordan expands his mythological palette to include, not just the Olympians, but their precursors, the Titans.

This book has all the strengths of the original Percy Jackson adventure, The Lightning Thief. Fast paced action, cliff hangers in every chapter, likable characters, and clever original writing make this book a winner.

Book Review: High School Confidential...

2008-06-17T19:20:00.003-05:00

Yuck. Pointless. Insincere. Self serving.

I think that about does it. So (allegedly), author Jeremy Iverson persuades a high school principal to allow him to attend classes for a semester as a high school senior. Then Jeremy (allegedly) documents the culture for a shocking look at teenage life in High School Confidential: Confessions of an Undercover Student. I call shenanigans. Oh, I believe he actually conned an administrator into letting him attend class, and I accept that he went to school acting as a high school senior. The rest, I believe, is more fantasy than documentary.

The students at "his" high school claim they all knew he was not "one of them." He admits that most of the stories are some sort of composite. Each student, teacher, security guard, and administrator fits perfectly into a stereotype. It doesn't seem that Iverson is surprised by anything he encounters. He invents a romantic rendezvous between a teacher and student, then justifies it in the end notes because statistics show that it happens.

This book was far too self-serving for my taste. I felt like Iverson was wasting a prime opportunity to gain insight into the teenage world. Instead he wanted to relive his high school years since he was always stuck in prep schools. That and he wanted to write a bestseller.

Put it on the shelf next to A Million Little Pieces -- a novel based on a handful of actual events.

Book Review: The Lightning Thief

2008-06-12T15:34:00.002-05:00

Rick Riordan, a Texas author, has written an incredible series of children's books. Many have called it "The next Harry Potter," at which point someone always shouts, "No, it's better than Harry Potter." I think they're both right.

The Lightning Thief is about Percy Jackson, a sixth grader who discovers that his father is a Greek god. You know, those residents of Mount Olympus (which it turns out is now hovering over NYC). Yep, Percy is a demigod. And what do demigods do? They go on quests! And so Percy travels across modern America on his quest. Without giving too much away, I have to tell you that Medusa is running a roadside stand... selling concrete lawn ornaments!

Amazingly creative and very well written. The books are action packed. Short chapters move quickly from one adventure to the next. The Percy Jackson series will eventually include five books. The fifth and final book is due out spring of 2009. So far, each book is approximately the same length (which makes me believe Riordan has planned his plots very well and is a disciplined writer).

This book has been popular among my eighth graders for many years (though Rick Riordan is a local author, so that may skew the sample). But when the most recent book was released recently, I had more than a dozen kids reading it in class the very next day.

Helicopter Parents Abroad

2008-06-07T08:04:00.003-05:00

As children's issues change over time, so do parent issues. The term "Helicopter Parent" refers to moms and dads who "hover" around their kids, making sure that the young'un gets every possible advantage. Well, a recent story coming out of Japan describes a school play where no parent was willing to allow his or her child to play a role other than the lead. The result: 25 Snow Whites on stage with no dwarfs or wicked witches.

Now I believe children are not helped by silent, uninvolved parents, but some parents need to take a step back and realize teachers really want to work with parents. No one benefits when parents and teachers become adversaries.

Retiree Passes Away Shortly After Final Class

2008-06-01T22:44:00.003-05:00

This week a Florida 4th-grade teacher died of a heart attack shortly after teaching her final class. Sharon Smith was retiring after 36 years of teaching. There are so many financial reasons not to postpone retirement, here's another reason to retire while you're still in good health.

Here's the article from the Pensacola paper.

Use some common sense & decency

2008-06-01T20:17:00.002-05:00

So there's a news story making the rounds about a high school student who disparaged school administrators on her blog. This student called school officials a nasty name -- on her personal blog on her own time. Those school officials said, "You know what, you don't need to be class secretary any more."

The US Second Court of Appeals said the school was within its rights to do so.

Gotta say this makes sense to me. Class offices are (in my mind) completely at the discretion of the school. The school can dissolve the class offices altogether if they feel like it.

Similarly, when I was in high school, a teacher in my district almost lost his teaching certificate because he was publishing an underground newspaper that was critical of the school district. TEA considered yanking his certificate for insubordination. (He now writes about city council instead... I was going to post a link to the paper's website, but the first three stories have a photo of a topless woman and a picture of some animal's "output area"... and he was surprised when he was nailed with insubordination charges)

Just a head-up. Be nice. Be thoughtful in creating reasoned prose instead of resorting to name calling. And don't bite the hand that feeds you. If it's really that bad, don't take their money or class office.

The Big Red 50!

2008-05-28T16:50:00.002-05:00

USA Today describes, "The Great Education Debate." And it is a great debate -- should a zero be a zero? There is a growing trend to turn zeros into a 50. In some locales, that means the six weeks (or semester grade) can be no lower than a 50, in other places, it actually means that students cannot receive a grade lower than a 50 on any assignment.

While the debate rages (and I encourage you to resist the strong emotions you feel -- there are strong arguments on each side) check out this quote:

A top proponent of a minimum-50 policy, Thomas Guskey of Georgetown College in Kentucky, acknowledges that there are no studies he knows of that examine whether such approaches increase passing rates.

For all the research we do in education covering every topic under the sun, for all the passion on both sides of this issue, why have there been no studies? We should have studies not only looking at passing rates, but also at general student performance. Are kiddos enticed into trying hard knowing that passing is still possible (as 50-minimum proponents claim) or do underachievers have the same level of skills under both plans?

Reading Scores Get 'Bump' From Student Incentives, Study Finds

2008-05-28T16:45:00.002-05:00

The first two paragraphs of this article:

School-based reward programs that offer students such incentives as cash, free MP3 players, or other gifts appear to produce improved reading achievement across grade levels, preliminary findings from an ongoing research project suggest.
The analysis, which looked only at charter schools because of the prevalence of incentive programs in the independent public schools, found no impact on students’ performance in mathematics.

Interesting... read more if you like.

DAVID HENDRICKS: Accountability hurts students, businesses

2008-05-25T10:01:00.003-05:00

There are a couple of quotes in this column that really hit the nail on the head. The column is based on a speech given by San Antonio ISD Superintendent, Robert Durón.

Calling testing an “obsession,” Durón said no test can determine if students have learned what they need to be employable.

“You can't test for punctuality. You can't test for initiative. You can't test for problem solving. Those are things that you can't bubble in on a test,” Durón said.

The problem goes beyond the limitations of assessment tests.

Teachers have to “teach to the test.” When they do so, they have to concentrate on the 10 percent of students who will have the most difficulty passing the test. That exasperates the other students. The fun in education gives way to stress for teachers, students and administrators.

“This is why students are bored,” Durón said. “Students drop out, but what scares me are the students who drop out because they are bored.”

On a completely different note, the superintendent's contract is available on the SAISD website. It turned my stomach a little. I don't understand why no one is paying MY professional dues. (Among other things!)

Texas Approves New Lang. Arts / Reading TEKS

2008-05-25T09:54:00.005-05:00

The Texas State Board of Education has passed the much-talked-about new TEKS (Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills) for English Language Arts/Reading. The Board did NOT approve a reading list (the idea of a state reading list was a large controversy in itself). The new curriculum is divided into three sections:

No end soon to soaring enrollments

2008-05-25T09:39:00.003-05:00

I stole this graph from a San Antonio-Express News article. Schools in that area are experiencing tremendous growth. One local district opens 3-5 new schools each and every year. These new schools barely keep up with growth as portable classrooms are frequently placed on campuses within the first three years of operation.

Don't get me wrong, I actually like portable classrooms -- normal shaped class, your own thermostat, windows, etc. And I cannot imagine the planning necessary to stay ahead of the population trends in some of the largest school districts in the state. You've got to buy up land in advance of the developers, and the school districts have done a good job of getting quality land (I've seen other districts where the schools flood when there's a healthy rain -- YIKES!).

We worry about stability when we address teacher retention, but this graph talks to the bigger stability issue. Students are reassigned to new schools as they open... the campus five blocks away is capped, busing kids to a different school... teachers leave to "open" new campuses (a truly unique challenge requiring quality individuals). It's tough for a campus to bond when you're losing students and staff all the time. And if you're not losing, then you're campus is so large it's tough to build effective learning communities.

Principal won't be charged

2008-05-23T19:48:00.002-05:00

I think this is such an amusing story. Teachers are all too familiar with the pressure to improve scores on standardized tests. This principal allegedly told science teachers,

"I will kill all of you and then shoot myself...You don’t know how ruthless I can be.”

He finally admitted he may have said that. He knows he told them they would all be fired, but he's not sure about the shooting and the killing.

No charges will be filed.

Scores? We should find out soon. Last year, 62% met panel recommendation (which is this year's passing standard).