50 book challenge

I have almost completed the 50 book challenge. Here is the list of all 42 books I have read so far.

If By Sea
All Quiet On The Western Front
Something Wicked This Way Comes
Lord of The Flies
The Trial
I am Scout
Big Mouth and Ugly Girl
Robinson Crusoe
War of the Worlds

Crime and Punishment
To Kill a Mockingbird
American Lion
What's so great about Christianity
Ike, an American legend
"What we carry"
"The making of a poem"
Shade's Children
Speak
Kidnapped
Elfstones of Shannara
Pool of Radiance
Pools of Darkness
Silent Sea

These three I'm counting as one book
The Bottle Imp
The Body Snatcher
Markheim

Ranger's Apprentice Book 1
Flight of The White Horse
Old man and the sea
My Grandfather's Son
Sharks over China
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
The Screwtape Letters
Catcher in the Rye
The Coldest Winter
Mere Christianity
Count of Monte Cristo
The Black Arrow
Dragonflight
Dragonquest
The White Dragon
The Great Gatsby
The Picture of Dorian Gray
The Grapes of Wrath

A change of pace

While watching "Jack's Big Music Show" with my son, I was pleasantly surprised by a group called "Nuttin But Stringz" that mixed violins with hip-hip. Normally I only half watch the show but something made me put down my book and pay attention. Boy was I glad I did. The first clip is the one from the show itself.




And yes this is the group from "America's Got Talent", here is the clip from their initial performance.



Enjoy!

You gotta be kidding right?

Last week I sent a letter to the school district to get reinstated as a substitute teacher for the remainder of the school year as I was no longer at my apprentice teaching position and my student teaching assignment would be ending in early May. Today I received a letter from the district stating that I would have to do a few things. First I would have to complete on-line training and then I would have to get finger printed (again), bring down a copy of my sub license and then I could sub for the remainder of the year.

Now the first thing that irritated me was the fact that I would have to pay $50 I don't have for the finger printing, even though they have my records for student teaching, and the thing that really pisses me off is the fact that I have to pay another $12 for the on-line training. I would understand doing this if I were new to subbing, but I subbed all last school year and was in the classroom all this year teaching as well! Can you say money grab? I knew you could!

Can you effing believe this? Bad enough I gotta pay the fifty clams for the finger prints, but then I have to pay for on-line substitute teaching training on top of that? Seriously?

This is not the change I was hoping for, that's for damn sure.

Almost done

I am down to my last two big projects and then my time at Nevada State College will come to an end. It's hard to believe that just 6 years ago I went back to school to become a teacher, and I am just one paper and one presentation away from reaching that goal. And then it's up to the jackasses in Carson City to get their crap together and pass some sort of budget so the school district knows how much money they have for teachers.

But hey at least I'll have a degree in May!

This really p***es me off...

I have not done much political posting lately with all the great stories to relate from the classroom but I had to talk about something that really has me pissed off.

No, not my students, they're great (just don't tell them that), it's the report released by the KGB er Department of Homeland Security dealing with Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment so now instead of dealing with the actual threats facing this country, the KGB, er DHS will be dealing with such threats:

"Rightwing extremism in the United States can be broadly divided into those groups, movements, and adherents that are primarily hate-oriented (based on hatred of particular religious, racial or ethnic groups), and those that are mainly antigovernment, rejecting federal authority in favor of state or local authority, or rejecting government authority entirely. It may include groups and individuals that are dedicated to a single issue, such as opposition to abortion or immigration." (pg. 2)

OK, so that's pretty much 90% of the conservatives in this country and includes everyone who participated in the 'tea parties' that took place today. And people thought that Bush was a dictator? In what flipping universe? Nothing that Bush did during his 8 years ever came close to this horse crap, and when they did issue reports like this they were very specific with group names and specific threats not this broad brushed jackbooted book burning Che loving hammer and sickle waving garbage.

And since I like to save the best for last, here is one more little gem for you to chew on.

"DHS/I&A will be working with its state and local partners over the next several months to ascertain with greater regional specificity the rise in rightwing extremist activity in the United States, with a particular emphasis on the political, economic, and social factors that drive rightwing extremist radicalization." (pg. 8)

Vast right wing conspiracy anyone? And we thought that died when Bill Clinton left office.

50 Book Challenge

Update #3 4/14/09: It's 38. I finished "The Trial" and "I Am Scout" today and forgot to add "Big Mouth and Ugly Girl" from last month. Only 12 more by July!

Update #2: It's 35, I finished Robinson Crusoe on Friday and I'm reading "The Trial" right now.
And Happy Easter everyone!

Update #1: It's 34 I finished War of the Worlds today and I'm half done with Robinson Crusoe...


So I have now finished 33 books out of the 50. Here is the list so far.

Crime and Punishment
To Kill a Mockingbird
American Lion

"What's so great about Christianity"
Ike, an American legend
"What we carry"
"The making of a poem"
Shade's Children
Speak
Kidnapped
Elfstones of Shannara
Pool of Radiance
Pools of Darkness
Silent Sea

These three I'm counting as one book
The Bottle Imp
The Body Snatcher
Markheim

Ranger's Apprentice Book 1
Flight of The White Horse
Old man and the sea
My Grandfather's Son
Sharks over China
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
The Screwtape Letters
Catcher in the Rye
The Coldest Winter
Mere Christianity
Count of Monte Cristo
The Black Arrow
Dragonflight
Dragonquest
The White Dragon
The Great Gatsby
The Picture of Dorian Gray
The Grapes of Wrath

To Kill A Mockingbird

At my new school my cooperating teacher had just started To Kill A Mockingbird so after spring break, that's what I'll be teaching as well. I had forgotten how good that book was until I picked it up again and the movie is not bad either. I mention this because I decided on a whim to do the novel for my literary theory class because I just was not interested in redoing my paper on Ursula LeGuin.

I'm glad I switched because I found out a very interesting thing. Lawyers use Atticus Finch as a role model in their law schools, and that one professor wrote an article in the Michigan Law Review that asked some hard questions, which were answered by other professors and lawyers. One of those responses came from Ann Althouse who has an excellent blog of her own.

Funny how things just kinda work out sometimes. Today I'll do my prewriting and the rough draft(s) and then tomorrow I'll finish it up.

Oh, and spring break is next week.

YEE-HAW!

8th Graders

I really like teaching 8th graders. They're more mature than 7th graders and I've been able to give them more challenging lessons successfully than 7th graders. Plus, they're not 7th graders. Don't get me wrong, Ive had some great 7th grade students and classes, but they're just wacked out as a rule. It's all those hormones raging through their bodies, they discover the opposite sex in a big way. They're happy one second and mad the next. Grown up one minute and a 3rd grader the next. And don't get me started on the drama, er D-R-A-M-A. It makes Desperate Housewives look like Dora The Explorer. Spare me, please.

Now 6th graders are just too immature for me, they're too clingy and needy. Plus it takes them pretty much a whole quarter before they even get the hang of middle school, and generally speaking you can't challenge them with lessons like you can 8th graders. Thanks but no thanks.

I'll take 8th graders any day of the week. The hormones have settled down some and they have a better sense of self, not to mention they really want to get out of middle school, especially here in NV where middle school is 6th-8th grade.

Next week I am going to start doing some teaching in my English classes. We're doing "To Kill A Mockingbird" and it's going pretty well so far. We'll see if it lasts.

Finally I got my confirmation from NSC for graduation. After 6 long years, I'll finally have a four year degree. And if I get an A in my Lit Theory class, I'll graduate Magna Cum Laude. Go me.

Finally!

After literally a week, I'm finally back in a classroom. I'll be dealing strictly with 8th graders this time which I can deal with. But here is the ironic part. Two of my new students know two of my old students, in fact one of my new students is related to an old one. Wait until I tell my friend at the old school that one!

There is one thing that I really miss though, and that's the laptop. It sucks not being able to sit in bed and work while my better half is relaxing, and it really sucks having to share a computer with the family.

But hopefully I'll be able to afford my own laptop this year.

The Waiting Game

So it's been almost a week since I've been inside a classroom interacting with kids, and I'm really ready to start teaching again. This enforced vacation that I have been on is not relaxing in the least. However, my professor told me that he was merely waiting on news as to which teacher I'd be pestering, er torturing, er working with for the next several weeks. The school is about the same distance from my house as my previous school although I have to backtrack a little bit due to the location of daycare but it's not a huge deal. At least I'll be teaching again and not sitting around the house feeling sorry for myself.

Also can someone please explain why 'Crime & Punishment' is considered to be such a great novel?

Please?

A Fresh Start

So I thought that last week was a challenge, boy was I wrong. Monday morning I had a verbal confrontation with a student that turned ugly. This student butted in where he was not wanted and totally lost his temper when I told him to go away. Eventually he managed to push the big red button and I lost my temper as well. I had a meeting later with my principal about what happened and figured that it was resolved as did the principal.

Tuesday afternoon I get a call from the chancellor of the school telling me that she had heard of the incident and that until her investigation was complete I was banned from the campus. So I go from getting ready to graduate and lesson planning and all that to looking at a teacher career that was about to come to a screeching halt. To say I was shocked would be the understatement of the year. And it wasn't just me, my cooperating teacher and the principal were both shocked and in the case of the principal, really angry that the chancellor felt the need to investigate what had happened. I think he was also angry that she was usurping his authority in what he thought was a private, not to mention closed matter.

So Wednesday passed and I found out that my inquisition er interview would take place Thursday at 1pm, at which point I would be able to tell my side of the story, then finally learn my fate.

So after a 2nd sleepness night, I arrived at the school to tell my tale and attempt to save 6 years of work. I arrived at the school and flanked by my principal (who fought very hard for me) and my adviser from Nevada State College, I told my side of the story as honestly and accurately as possible. I explained what led up to the incident and as much of the incident as I could, because most of it was a blur.

After that was over, I got a call from my advisor who explained that my career was not in jepordy and that I would finish my 'student' teaching at another school. I put the '' around student because in reality I had been teaching there since the first day of school, and in no way shape or form was I a typical student teacher because I took over a class that had no teacher until a replacement could be found so my 8 weeks was more like a semester and a half, literally. The reason that I am going to switch schools is to give me a frest start. To say I was stressed would be another large understatment, try teaching two subjects, go to school and try to be a dad and husband all at once. So going to a school were I could just observe and help out is going to be nice, even if it will be unpaid. We do have a bit of money saved up so we should (with God's help) be OK until the summer.

So today after school I went to turn in my laptop, badge, key, etc and collect my belongings. I arrived right after school let out to talk to the chancellor and get my fingerprint reports and I got mobbed by my (sadly) former students. They all came to say goodbye and to wish me luck at my new school. The chacellor was very nice and told me what a hard decision it was for her to make and that if there was anything she could do for me to let her know. She then told me she could see how much I cared for the kids and that my next school would be lucky to have me.

I also got to see some of my colleges on the way to my room. The principal and some of my students (funny how I can't bring myself to say former) had boxed up my belongings to make it easier for me. Some of my students also wrote me letters saying how unfair it was that I was leaving because they were misbehaving. (Hopefully that lesson will stick, mess with the good teachers enough and they may leave for greener pastures!) One asked me for my lava lamp (It's at home) and reading them brought tears to my eyes. They'll go on the wall by my computer with the letters from previous teaching stops.

What I could not believe was how much stuff I brought home with me. 1 packback, 1 office depot bag and 4 paper boxes worrth of books, lessons, posters, coffee cups and more. And that was just from the middle of August to today! I did leave a few books for three students who need to be reminded to put the books away until they finish their work. A good problem for an English teacher!

I will find out early next week were my next school will be. I'm sad that I won't be able to finish the year where I was but I am thankful I can still teach. Which brings me to why I won't finish at the same school. There are two reasons actually. The first is that I'd be second guessing myself everytime I try to correct a student's misbehavior. After all I'd been suspended once, the second time I'd be done both there and as a teacher. Secondly, for the rest of the year I'd be 'the teacher who got suspended'. And when there are only 190 middle school students everyone would know who I was and it would seriously inhibit my ability to teach.

BBL

Too many balls in the air, to many things going wrong at the same time, to many stupid mistakes on my part, be back later.

Worst. Day. Ever.

Somebody remind me why the f*** I became a teacher would you? It's a good thing I have a co-teacher because I would have gotten myself fired today because of the way I was treated by my students. I tried from 8:00 to 8:07 to get my first class settled down so they could watch a movie and they refused so I said no movie. Then they got all indignant and asked for a class discussion, which went nowhere. They were telling ME that I had to be more respectful to THEM, as if I were the student and they were the teacher. I did my best to answer them, but of course they reverted to form and it was so bad the principal had to come and talk to them. I am so sick of getting rescued by my principal I could throw up.

Plus the kids actually got a treat today, they got to watch a movie to celebrate the end of the CRT tests and they screwed that one up as well. I was so mad that I literally had to leave the room for about 20 minutes and vent.

I refuse REFUSE to kiss the backside of a seventh grader just to get them to sit down and shut the hell up. Boy are they in a for a surprise on Monday.

131 million and counting....

That's how much non gaming money my city has lost in the last 90 days. As the Las Vegas Review Journal reports "Forget apology-seeking letters. Maybe Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman should send President Barak Obama a bill."

A couple of notes to the 'enlightened' one:

1. Spitting in the face of a state that voted for you in the last election, especially one that relies heavily on tourism and the convention trade is very very stupid, especially considering that the same state voted for Bush the last two elections. You're costing the state jobs and once the GOP rightfully pins the blame on you for this, good luck in 2012...

2. Conventions help both businesses and customers, not to mention the cities and states that host them. I should know, I've been on all three sides of the equation and it's a great way for companies to get new products and services in front of customers.

Of course I'm sure it's much easier blaming Rush Limbaugh for your issues than looking in the mirror, but you may want to think about things like this before you speak without your teleprompter.

CRTs: AKA Uber High Stakes Tests

The CRTs (Criterion Referenced Tests) are what the Silver State uses to see if the schools are making AYP (adequate yearly progress) in regards to NCLB (No Child Left Behind). Today was our first of 4 days (6 for the 8th graders) of fun testing. Today and tomorrow are the math tests, Wednesday and Thursday are the English tests and next Monday and Tuesday are the science tests.

Now the nice thing was that our students didn't seem super stressed by them, probably because they've already taken so many tests similar to this one, and because although we've told them the CRTs were coming, we as a staff didn't freak out about the tests and this was passed on to our students. We did have them review one from 2006 so they would be used to the wording, and we did make sure our lessons applied to the standards the CRTs were going to be testing, but freaking out was not in the plans.

I have mixed feelings about NCLB. I like the fact that schools are accountable for all of their students regardless of grade or ability, but I don't like the all or nothing tone of the law, nor do I like the fact that eventually all schools will fail to make AYP, especially once you get a vast majority of your students making AYP, because there is no way 100% of your students will make AYP no matter how much the school rocks. Imagine being in a school were you have 75% or more of your students making AYP and yet getting put on the watch list because you didn't improve from the year before or that your scores went down a bit. And spare me the righteous BS about educating everyone. That assumes (a BIG assumption) that your students are ready and capable of learning, and that (an even bigger assumption) those parents are on board with you as well. I'm all for accountability but at some point reason has to prevail, but like so many other things the federal government does, reason never entered the equation.

I'll keep you posted on the rest of the week. Maybe I'll be able to finish my unit on Letter From a Birmingham Jail, now that the copier has toner AND staples. I swear the kids eat the handouts when I'm not looking. No wonder their backpacks weigh 800 pounds...

Calling home

It's one of my least favorite things to do as a teacher. I really dread the thought of ruining some kids week, but at the same time these same kids need to know that I am in charge and that when you don't do as I ask that consequences follow. So yesterday and today I made phone calls, lots of them. I hate to admit it but some of them are LONG overdue but hopefully the kids will show up on Monday with a better attitude, because I am sick and tired of the whole 'persecution complex' where the student thinks that they're somehow being persecuted because I asked them to face the front (gasp), tuck in their shirts (the horror!), and actually stop talking (OMG!) so I can conduct a lesson.

Now it was not all bad, I did get to make a few of the 'good calls' where I got to tell a parent how hard their kid was working on their behavior, or their missing work, or both. Those calls I love and I wish I could make them more often, my fear is that the kids will start to backslide and I'll have to get their TVs pulled from their room, their cell phones yanked and the switch pulled off the tree.

I just wish some of these kids were a bit faster on the uptake...

Making Changes

One thing that teachers do is to make changes to lessons that don't work. Yesterday I started the unit on "Letter From A Birmingham Jail" and it went over like a lead balloon. The students complained about the letter and said this was better suited for history than for English. So today before we continued the lesson I played a short video on the civil rights crusade from the 60's and got the desired result.




Once the students saw the photos and heard the eye witnesses, it was much easier to focus their attention on the task at hand. I knew I had them when I asked for a volunteer to read and had a plethora of volunteers. since the letter is 17 double spaced pages, everyone will get a chance to read.

We also do biographies on a daily basis of famous people. Today I did BB King and on a hunch found this video of "The Thrill is Gone" and played that for the students before they did the assignment. So today I was 2 for 2, not bad considering I have a nasty cold right now.

She Unnames Them

"She Unnames Them" is a fascinating short story from Ursula K. Le Guin. I read it last year for my American Literature class and thought it would be interesting to see how middle and high school students would react to such an interesting and open ended story, and today was my chance. We had just finished up the short story "A Jury of Her Peers", and I wanted to do a shorter story that was not like anything that my students had read before. I knew that the students would struggle a bit with the story because of the complexity of the text coupled with the Biblical and poetic references but I had confidence that they could work their way through the text and get something from it.

I taught the lesson to three different classes and got three totally different responses. My 1st block (7th graders) were very much into the story and seemed to enjoy it even though it was not an easy read. When I told them that they just did college level work they applauded themselves and I think it boosted some self esteem even if they would never admit it to anyone, especially to their teacher. I even had a student ask if the story was making fun of the Bible and had to assure them that it was not, it was merely asking a question about what would happen if...

My 8th graders (2nd block) were not so open to the story, but they did get through it for the most part and some of them seemed to enjoy the story as well. Interestingly enough, they laughed at the word ass (donkey) while the previous class didn't blink, although one student asked if they could write the word in an answer. I said yes they could.

Then there was my last class of 7th graders. They had no intention of doing any school work and I finally told them to read the story and answer the questions themselves. For the near term, they get the little kid treatment until they prove they can handle a class discussion and are willing to do some actual work. If I felt any better I'd be calling parents right now but that will have to wait until tomorrow. I feel like crap and have a paper to write...

Oh, and my math class really impressed me with their chapter test. Nobody failed and 7 of my 16 students had an A. Very good news for all involved.

One last thing, we start "A Letter From A Birmingham Jail" tomorrow. I'll keep all 12.1 of you informed of how it goes. We start with the clergy statement that prompted the letter and go from there.

Interesting

We're in the middle of the CRT (high stakes test) review for my math class and I am plesantly surprised by how the students are doing. For the 'do now' I've been having them do simple algebra problems ( X+3=15) to refresh their memories and they still remember how to do one step equations. This is cool because I have not really taught this in over a month, maybe longer and to see them remember how to do it means that I actually did teach them something. They're also doing pretty well with getting data from graphs and using it, but it's a skill that is hard to explain and it's just easier to have them do it than explain it to them.

The other nice thing is that the class grades are starting to go up, hopefully this will continue, but we'll see...

Fist Fight!

So now I have truly arrived, I got to break up my first fist fight after school today. I was walking to my car and just happened to look over at the play area and noticed two 8th grade girls about 5 feet from each other. Something was said and the next thing you know they're fighting and I'm jumping over the concrete wall to separate them. Fortunately for me the Principal's secretary was walking by and we were able to get them separated and to the office where their parents were called and they are now facing suspensions for their poor choices. This is the same day where I sent two students to the office for texting in class and one more for playing their i-Pod not once but twice in class. I have one more student who will probably suffer the same fate tomorrow because I didn't catch her texting today.

The other news is that unlike the Hindenburg lesson I taught two weeks ago, today my professor was picking nits when he came to observe me in the classroom. We started the short story "A Jury of Her Peers" which the 7th graders really started to enjoy. Hopefully this will continue as we get deeper into the story. We'll see but the signs are promising.