My district administrators have proposed over 20 million dollars in new cuts for next year.  Granted, I am from a large district, but these cuts are deep – deeper than I thought possible.   Most of these cuts come directly impact classroom instruction or maintenance.  None o… Read full post »

Both politicians and educators enter their fields to make the world a better place.  I have no real evidence of this, but I am going to assume that it is true.  As a teacher, I know that I became a teacher so I could teach kids.  I like kids, I like… Read full post »

Two of my students called home today.   I have had about a month of implementing our new program for behavior, and these two students are still requiring reminders, several times a day, to follow the expectations.   So today, I had it with them.  At lunch today, I had them ca… Read full post »

I have been teaching long enough that the group of students in my first year teaching kindergarten at my current school, are now seniors in high school.  The following year, I taught second grade, and those students graduated last June.  Some of these students were also in my class when I… Read full post »

Our district has decided not to enter the race.  We have received unofficial word that our district has decided NOT to apply for the competitive grants under the Race to the Top program through the federal government.   Apparently, we wouldn’t qualify.   Our community i… Read full post »

A couple of weeks ago, I posted that I had ordered a new book on classroom discipline.  The book, Discipline Without Stress, Punishment or Rewards, was ordered off of Marvin Marshall’s fancy website.  I was a little doubtful, as I tend not to trust slick presentations and the ‘s… Read full post »

I don’t have a formal, structured discipline plan for my classroom.  I have a section about it in my back to school night handout, which basically says that the expectation is that we are respectful to each other in the classroom.   Students (and adults) who have difficulty with… Read full post »

Two vastly different newspapers have recently blamed me for the problems in education.  I am too greedy, too selfish and out for all I can get.  I am apparently, not at all interested in teaching… Read full post »

Grades for the first trimester closed on Friday, 11/13.  I had to turn in my report cards, completed, today for review by my principal. 

When my report cards were returned to me, they included a memo that outlined how my report card graded did not reflect the online assessment tool… Read full post »

No one is going to win this "Race to the Top".   It hurts to listen to President Obama or Education Secretary Arne Duncan talk about it.   It is wrong to set up education as a competition.  Compulsory education for everyone cannot be a race or competitive.  This sets up… Read full post »

The information, as presented to me today, was akin to someone telling me the world was, after all, flat.  And here is the proof.  And what you thought about the world has been wrong all along.  And it was presented with such assuredness, that I had to see the truth in… Read full post »

I have started reading The Evolution of Calpernia Tate to my class.  I actually downloaded (uploaded - I can never get that right) it to my Kindle over the summer and loved it.  I decided then that I would have to read it to students.

The book tells… Read full post »

We had a meeting after school today.  The other shoe has dropped.  Even though our school has an API of over 800 (Academic Performance Index), and overall we made our AYP (Adequate Yearly Progress), we missed the mark in two subgroups - Hispanics… Read full post »

Today, we talked about tape in class.  We use tape (yes, the sticky kind) quite a bit.  We have notebooks that we write in and add information by taping it in.  If the tape is left on the desks, it is soon gone.  Ten year olds find quite a bit of… Read full post »

One of the teachers at my school told me that she just received the h1n1 vaccine.

The CDC guidelines are as follows: 

CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) has recommended that certain groups of the population receive the 2009 H1N1 vaccine when it first become… Read full post »

This weekend, two of my former students were accepted to college.  They went to Humboldt State University's early admissions day and were accepted on the spot.  I am not surprised, but it still makes me very happy.

At the end of each year, students leave the classroom and I don't… Read full post »

Whenever something comes up at school that we want to do, the first question is "how are we going to pay for this?"  It is the big question for every thing we do.

There are so many things we want to do and need to do, but the funding just… Read full post »

We have a new math curriculum (see previous post re: thumb tacks).  It has been a huge adjustment for both the students and the teachers. We are trying.  We are persevering.  We are not being too successful.

One of the limitations to the program is that it is a… Read full post »

I was out of the classroom a couple of days last week.   I was helping my school assess all of our English language learners.  Every year, we need to administer the California English Language Development Test (CELDT) to every student who is still acquiring English language skills.

&n… Read full post »

I teach fifth grade.  My students are 9 and 10 years old.  They are nice kids, and usually well behaved (well, ignore that earlier post about the fight). 

This is a diret quote from my new math curriculum.  See if you can spot the potential problem. 

"Demonstrate how you wan… Read full post »

My school is very diverse.  There are students in my class whose parents come from all over the world, and those who were raised right in here in the bay area.  Each student comes with an amazing and rich world of different experiences, as well as the common experiences of living… Read full post »

An entry in three parts:

 Substitutes:

I had a substitute today.  Michael is his name, and he subs at our school often.  It is so much work to have a sub.  You basically have to tell someone else what to do minute by minute for the entire day.  It… Read full post »

When we leave or enter the room, I let them in the room a few at a time, to minimize the craziness when they come in or rush out.  When giving this instruction the first time, I tell the students about the Who concert in 1979.  I am not having a… Read full post »

When we were teenagers, my sister and I were on a swim team.  I wasn't good, but I wasn't terrible either.  I was fine.  My father, who hated all kinds of competition in a super competitive way, used to tell us that he knew a way we could win every race… Read full post »

When we were teenagers, my sister and I were on a swim team.  I wasn't good, but I wasn't terrible either.  I was fine.  My father, who hated all kinds of competition in a super competitive way, used to tell us that he knew a way we could win every race… Read full post »