happy b-day to me!!

Well today is the day that I am now 40. I must say that I am a little disappointed because I would have figured there would have been dark clouds flying over head and creepy organ music playing in the background - but no it was sunny out and not one organ-sounding thing on my ipod, just a whole lot of Jimmy Buffett.

I have always loved the adage that you are only as old as you feel and so if I had to put an actual number on my "age" it would have to be 33 - so I guess that shall be my new age!

But regardless of the age I figure one thing you are supposed to do when you get older is tell stories so let me tell you about one that happened to me 40 (err...33) years ago today...

I was born on Mountain Home Air Force Base in Boise, Idaho where my father was a Sargent. Now this was back in the 60's (err..70's - wow, this changing how old you are thing is hard to keep up with - screw it, I am 40 again!) so naturally when my mother was in labor, he was not allowed anywhere near the hospital but later that day he came by to check out his new son.

He went to the big window where you can see all the babies and he turned to the nurse on duty (who was actually a Captain) and asked which baby was me. Well she pointed me out and my father got really quiet and just stared for a minute and then turns back to the nurse and calmly says "how come he looks like a frog?"

Well the nurse starts to really chew him out, "Sargent, that is not a frog, that is your son and you will respect and love him". Quickly jumping to attention and looking straight a head he belts out "Ma'am, yes ma'am, still looks like a frog ma'am!"

My father loves telling this story and every time he does so when I am around he always ends it the same way - he looks over at me and says "at least you got better looking".

Well I think I shall sign off as I listen to Buffett's A Pirate's Look at Forty...I love how that man knows how to sing about life!

Peace out...

gggrrrrr.....horrible day!!

Okay, today is Valentine's Day and it was just a horrible day for 2 basic reasons.

1st - for some reason my 140 fourteen year old were just OFF THE WALL! I am not sure which was worse - the sugar highs that were going around from the downing of heart-shaped boxes of chocolates or the raging hormones that were just magnified by the holiday (one of the girls actually gave a boy her thong which of course ended up on the floor in one of the classrooms). We were all on the lookout for PDA that was taking place in all the nooks and crannies.

2nd - and the one that was most painful - as I was walking to my first class with my morning coffee I was almost run over by these two (supposedly) cute kindergartner girls and so I had to side-step around them. As they passed one girl chided her friend "be careful where you are walking, you almost knocked that old man's coffee down"

OLD MAN?!?!?!?

Not only was this the first time ANYBODY has ever referred to me as an "old man" but it had to happen on the week that I am actually turning 40 years old (my b-day is on Sunday). Boy what a reality check that was!!!

"trust Snape"

Well I have to admit that I was pretty excited to hear about the announcement of the 7th Harry Potter novel "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows". I obviously have read them all and absolutely loved them. But I have to tell you that the world-wide roar this release will cause on July 21st will be an incredible sight because it will mean kids of all ages will actually be looking forward to reading!

Now I went to Borders Books this weekend and reserved my copy and when I did so I had a choice between the 2 bumper stickers that you see here. I quickly snagged "Snape is a very bad man". But when I left the store I sat in my car and thought about it (yes I know, I really need a life) and then quickly went back in and traded it in for "Trust Snape".

So let me throw out the question to you - which bumper sticker would represent your feelings on Snape? [and if you have no idea who that is, then I doubt you are still reading this post so just move on you silly muggle]

the harderst part of teaching...

Right now we are at the middle point of our 3rd quarter and so I am sitting here trying to analyze how my kiddos are doing and it is driving me crazy. As the years roll along it becomes more and more evident that at least for me teaching 8th grade (aka "the hormonally challenged") the hardest part of my job is trying to distinguish between when a student really does not get what I am teaching and when they really just do not give a s**t.

A part of being a thirteen and fourteen year old is learning how to keep a lot of different balls in the air - school, friends, family, friends, sports, friends, clubs, friends...it is just so important that they learn how to juggle efficiently. So even some of my really bright kids will drop that "school" ball every now and then but it is so hard to figure out if the bad grades are due to them or just poor teaching.

Right now I have 33% of my 140 students with D's and F's which is way high. But I also know that traditionally the 3rd quarter always tends to be the lowest quarter but I am also trying to teach some pretty advanced stuff. Thankfully the other 8th grade teachers are also seeing high failure rates but not this high but then again they had higher last quarter and I was lower, but, but, but, but - my head is spinning off looking at all the variables here.

ggggrrrrrrrr

grading the TOTAL student?

Because I have all this free time on my hands [insert chuckle here] I sit on my district's "Promotion, Retention and Grading" Committee (PRG). One of the things we are discussing right now is something that I am in a constant battle over with my principal - whether or not it is right to issue a "zero" for missing/late work.

My 8th grade team feels very strongly that we do NOT accept late work and so if something is not turned in on time, they do not receive credit. The way we look at it is in 8th grade it is sooooooooo very important that we teach accountability and try to instill a solid academic work ethic - to be frank I honestly believe these 2 things are a lot more important than the actual 8th grade science curricula that I am supposed to cover (especially considering everything I teach this year they will get again in high school).

My principal's take - which also is that of some of the people on the committee - is that a student's grade should ONLY be a reflection of what they have or have not learned and "behavior" issues should NEVER come into play. She feels that it is more important to accept late work and simply give a reduced grade for it so we can at least assess what they learned. The general philosophy being that if it was important enough to assign it then it is important enought that every child actually does it.

Now before some of you start yelling at me, let me explain how I handle this policy. If little Jimmy does not turn in his worksheet on time (or even at all) he will get a "0" on it. BUT when I return the papers to go over the answers in class, I give him a blank one so he can keep up with what I am covering and he will be prepared for the exam which will cover those topics. He is not missing out on the information but he is being held accountable on his CHOICES. And to encourage that they at least turn it in even if they get no credit, we have quarterly "reward days" where we do a lot of fun things (movies, food, kickball, socializing) and a criteria to participate is that you have no more than one "missing" assignment. So when they turn in something even if it is late, we change the assignment to "0" points and not "missing".

I can totally see the other side but I feel strongly obligated to teach accountability and to hopefully break some bad habits BEFORE they get to high school and their grades have a much bigger impact.

I would be very interested to hear some thoughts on this subject from the EduSphere. If you feel differently than I do, PLEASE try and convince me of your way because it sure would make my life a lot easier and would reduce the number of battle scars I am accumulating.

Thoughts?