lethalwarner’s blog

    I am writing this blog while currently under the weather with flu-like symptoms, although I attribute my malady to yet another bout of strep throat which I acquired earlier in the semester. However, since last week during the few classes I actually got to teach in the state testing madness focused on how the current swine flu outbreaks were related to a topic we actually learned this year, exponential growth, my students will most likely shun me if I go into work coughing. I attempting to explain to them that the media operates on fear and that today's society is so reactionary and unable to cope with even a minor crisis that everything is being blown out of proportion. The Swine Flu is now a pandemic, but that connotation is misleading as it merely comments on the geography, not the severity of the outbreak. Also, it lacks many of the genetic factors which maid the 1918 flu so virulent.
     If I were an administrator, I would merely take precautions on this reactionary nature of today's society, because for all other intents and purposes this is the flu. I would try to assuage the fears of my community and send out an e-mail/letter informing parents of the symptoms and encouraging students to stay home if they believe they have some of the symptoms. My main focus would actually be on the fall semester, as this is when the 1918 flu mutated and became a much more virulent version. I would have contingency plans in place to deal with a real threat from a mutated strain, and a way to continue the education of students with a maximum emphasis on safety. Since the best remedy for fear is education, I would probably ask my biology and math teachers to explain how diseases work and spread during some of their first units next year in order to combat any hysteria from students. The only sporting event I would curtail heavily would probably be wrestling, unless our team or the opponents had confirmed cases. Other than that, it is the flu right now, nothing more, people simply don't have a resistance to it, so the sooner they get it and recover, the quicker than can put it out of their mind. Who am I as an administrator to stop the natural evolution of these events.  

   I was curious to know what my students thought of my teaching style. I am going to let my students speak for themselves, I polled my best class and my most challenging class and picked responses on opposite ends of the spectrum to showcase my best qualities as a teacher and also where I can improve. I am typing the responses verbatim.

What It's Like to Learn in Mr. Warner's Class by S.D.
    Mr. Warner is very smart white guy. Sometimes his hands are a little dirty and his clothes a little wrinkled, but as long as I learn the work, it's cool with me. His teaching style is sometimes a little too technical. What I mean by that is that sometimes he uses big words or starts talking about scientific things that I don't understand. Despite that, I like the way he relates science to math. Other students don't like how Mr. Warner's class because they say he's annoyingly boring. I personally like his class because I learn a lot and he makes sure we all learn material if we are willing to learn. I may fall asleep in Mr. Warner's class, but its not because his teaching, I'm just lazy! The classroom is really decorated and bright and interesting. I like how he plays music while we work. Overall, I say Mr. Warner is a great educator.

Untitled by C.B.
    Learning in this class is very uncertain. It is like some days and some skills are easy learning. In class there is also a bad scent that causes headaches which make it difficult to concentrate. In my regular and old math clas we did fun activities to learn better. This year all the teacher does is write on the board and talk. Another disturbing thing is that instead of focusing on math we focus on science and history. We should have write this letter early in the year so teacher could make progress.

S.B.'s response
    In Mr.Warner's Algebra II class I have learned and accomplished a lot. I didnt know that I could learn some things. I have to be honest math is my worst subject. But ever since I met Mr. Warner math has actually became one of my favorite subjects because he tries his best to make sure each student learns. He is a very nice and intelligent teacher. His teaching style is bright because he also has a humorous way of teaching. Even though other students may behave horrible in different ways. He still manages to teach. By being a high school senior he's one of my favorite teachers at Holly Springs High School and I look forward to meeting more teachers in college like him.

       I think the article discusses competently all issues concerning summer school education, and I agree with most, but not all of the points presented to improve the summer school program. The first issue addressed that I would like to incorporate into Holly Springs Summer School is encouraging innovation in the classroom and an effort to connect the material to real-life. The separation between students that succeed and students that don't especially in math and sciences, is the inability to see how material is relevant to their own life, hence effort is not put forth. In summer school, since you are given the ability to work with students in just one field, the ability to include projects and stimulating activities will make the job of teaching the material less of a struggle. I also think lowering the class size is integral with students who are struggling, because during the regular school year these students probably feel like their individual needs are not being met, which causes them to "check out". Class size was not in issue in summer school last year, which in our situation makes it a good training ground for class organization and maximizing student achievement.
     In order to test student achievement, I think it is integral to see how far students have moved, not necessarily if they are yet on grade level. Testing is one way to do this, and I feel a skills test administered both before and after the summer school session does give some way to measure this. I also think students should be given a survey before and after to gauge their confidence in the subject matter and their belief in its importance, because this will gauge their success in future classes in the same subject and an ability to continue to advance on their own.
     In order to achieve this, teachers in each class must have a cohesive plan of action and overall course vision. If we have just a few goals and objectives which we harp on, such as in Algebra I an ability to graph and manipulate all different families of equations, then it will be easier for teachers to instill and students to adhere to the achievement level expected. I think with planning in advance and incorporating the ideas for the course from several sources, this can be achieved. Success for the class I teach and the summer school in general will be to reinforce basic subject skills and instill an interest in the subject so future learning will be come from within the students as opposed to being an edict placed upon them.
        I think that summer school should be part of the plan for all schools to ensure social promotion doesn't occur. I'm not entirely sure the financial burden should be placed entirely on taxpayers however, because the student and parents are at least somewhat accountable for their students need to be placed in summer school. I think one of the most important points brought up is to attempt new strategies and tailor individual student learning plans to find out in which way this student can be reached. Once this is discovered the information should be conveyed to the teachers of these students in the following year. Teachers brought in to teach summer school should be constantly assisted and evaluated to make all instructional time valuable to these students who require it to catch up to grade level. If we include all of these initiatives into our plan for summer school, success and student achievement will surely follow.

  So, My 7th period biology class might be one of the few saving graces of my existence in Mississippi. I was discussing that if you uncoiled one strand of DNA you could stretch it out to 3 feet long. I also said because we have 1X10^14 cells in our body, if you stretch out all the DNA from all those cells, it would extend 100 times further than the distance from the Earth to the Sun. CN, who is often referenced when discussing bears in biology due to his striking resemblance to that particular species, was taken aback by this fact. I stressed this would be in an average-sized human being and CN said, " So if you stretched out my DNA, it would go way further right". The entire class cracked up. A DNA joke in my class, maybe life isn't so bad. Now if only I can get them to understand my Pi and i joke, life might just be down right pleasant. They do know that asymptotes are just like MC Hammer, "you can't touch this". 

     One of the essential learning objectives for Biology II is to explain the chemical basis for life. I was struggling to find a unit that would be meaningful in this field and comprehensible by my students as their background in chemistry is limited. I was looking through my A.P. Biology notebook from high school and saw a great introductory activity to the 6 properties of water which are important to life. They are, of course, adhesion, cohesion, high heat of vaporization, high specific heat, polarity, and the ability for ice to float on water. I was wondering how to adapt some of these concepts to my classroom as sets to peak interest in this topic which could be bland. So for each property I devised an appropriate demonstration and biologically relevant example to hopefully burn the 6 properties into my students synapses for all of eternity.
     The demonstrations I devised for each are as follows and remembered by my students as the celery experiment for adhesion, pepper floating on water for cohesion, alcohol vs. water in cooling down your hand for high heat of vaporization, a quarter vs. a pen cap heating up rates for high specific heat, oil floating on water for polarity, and ice floating on water, for ice floating on water. I paired each of these with a biological example, and it is the only lesson of the year which I'm sure the kids have understood and might still remember to this very day. I still ask what these properties are at random times throughout the year and the kids are unafraid to answer these questions, as they appear to be with others, because at least they remember the demonstrations. They can normally work out the properties significance when thinking about the demonstration. It proves to me that when I feel like I have the motivation, resources and mental well-being, I can be an effective teacher in some regards. This small glimmer of hope makes me feel like Brady Quinn in his debut season, although I may have started with a good game when well prepared and fresh off the bench, the depth and ferocity of my opposition will surely, and in my case has, left me somewhat shell-shocked and relying on my running game as opposed to razzle-dazzle. Also a success, I believe now I have made a football analogy in 4 straight blog. Also, I realize I might have begun to take on a hatred of the NFC north, a consequence of living with Alex Funt. Is this a success, I know not, but I don't believe its a failure, so I'll take what I can get at this point.

So, I was watching Iron Chef the other day when my roommates were discussing how hopeless the educational system is in Mississippi and the chance for reprieve for the system as a whole was infinitesimal if only the current, half-measures were employed to remedy it. While one of my roommates was suggesting sterilization may be the only viable solution to break the cycle, synapses in my brain fired randomly and coalesced into an idea fusing Iron Chef and the problems facing the educational system of impoverished students in America. The idea, from kindergarten through 8th grade, send students to a school in which they remain in a regimented, disciplined, learning intensive environment for 2 week stints, visiting their parents only every other weekend. This system is employed in Japan, where learning and advancing national goals is prized above all else. Some even more drastic models for education are employed in Japan, and they outstrip our performance in educational assessments regularly. I feel this is the only way to break the current cycle in impoverished households, as currently the parents of most students lack the education themselves to provide the structure and support necessary for success. The African-American community, which this is largely targeted at, could provide at least the management aspect of this system, as I believe a military background would work exceedingly well in establishing the structure necessary for learning to take place. The teachers may have to come from a broader demographic, just as Mississippi Teacher Corps does, but I think it should. I know some feel each community should handle there own problems, but we need to fix internal national problems as a whole people, so all of our citizens can participate and guide the path of our nation.
    So, is this a feasible solution, and by this do I mean, could you sell it. I think it would almost certainly give a larger percentage of kids the chance to succeed in the society which they've been born into. But, selling it is the hard point, just like selling the fact that learning math and biology is important to kids I teach. The United States would have to provide room and board, I believe in K-8 to be effective for all those students who are near or below the poverty line. However, in this model, you would also be spared paying room and board for a large percentage of those students for the 20-60 years of incarceration they would face as an uneducated, apathetic, I just don't give a fuck member of a disenfranchised group. But here in lies the problem, the inability for most people to see the long term advantages of actions now, or the long term consequences. I took a biology class in college, in which I watched a documentary on global warming and other modern issues facing society today, and it said the biggest problem facing the common person, and therefore society as a whole, is the inability to comprehend the exponential function. I kind of bought into it then, I wholly do now. Our students don't see how effort now which has seemingly little return can have enormous return potential in the future. Similarly, legislatures fail to see the how spending more money now could save them such a tremendous amount in the future. And it comes down to this, Republicans are idiots. And Republicans run America right now, because America as a whole is uneducated and fear-prone. God, I hate people who are afraid of irrational things. I hate people who can't understand systems and look for short-term benefits. Well, at least I hate those people making decisions which will impact millions of people for generations. But, I may be digressing. Whatever, its my free-write.
      Do I ever expect this system to be implemented in America, ha, no. Too many rich white people make too much money from incarcerating poor black, hispanic and white people. I am not saying anything earth shattering, but it is still frustrating. Hence why I instead take the Parks approach and just try to throw as many starfish back into the ocean as possible. I am going to try to pick one from each class this year and aide them in achieving their aspirations  if possible. Succumbing to existentialism has always been difficult for me, but at least for now I am a fledgling without the power to accomplish any sweeping changes. I don't know if any one person has the power to overcome such a ridiculous dichotomy between achievement, actually I'm sure they don't, and without a nation caring that part of it has cancer, eventually it will metastasize, and I will be in Ireland. Too rah loo rah loo rah.

  The book that I am reviewing is A Framework for Understanding Poverty by Ruby Payne, which is an attempt to convey some of the skill sets which those in poverty possess and lack, and the reasons why the differences between those in poverty and those in the middle-class make it difficult for those in poverty to succeed in a school system in which middle-class values are perpetuated. I found the most compelling section of the book and that which I have found of most significance for those who struggle in poverty is not a lack of intelligence, but a lack of ability to convey their ideas in an acceptable way and a lack of knowledge of what is required and how to achieve goals they set. This book gives an explanation of the 5 different "registers" which are used by people to convey information and I find that many of my students lack this component of speech. However, some of my students grasp concepts unrelated to English with the same level of comprehension I would expect students in white suburbia to gain understanding, such as the atom. The atom is a concept which one cannot have a great base and foreknowledge for comprehension, as it isn't part of everyday life, unless you parents are quantum physicists. However, sentence structure and ones lexicon is developed from a very early age and it is difficult to develop it greatly at a later age when speech patterns are set. Therefore, some of my students not only don't enjoy speaking formally, but may never be able to achieve the a mastery of any level of speech besides the casual register, which will prevent them from acquiring jobs in most fields. I see this and comprehend it, and the book does give a good treatment of how this arises and the reasons for its impediments to rising out of poverty. Another aspect of poverty which I have been noticing is that many of my students wish to become doctors or lawyers, and yet have absolutely no concept of what would be required of them to achieve their goal. And they lack the ability to plan for long term goals. Without significant relationships and adults who have organizational ability, where can one expect to gain such skills. The most important suggestion posed by the book is how to set up a situation where students can create significant relationships in a school environment which may allow for them to break the cycle of generational poverty. The suggestion of a voluntary program where students would stay with the same teacher for multiple school years seems efficient to me and the arguments created for this system, such as the ability to begin with instruction immediately during the second year due to familiarity with students and teachers, would suggest to me that this is at least feasible in subjects such as English and math where a general knowledge base is sufficient for a teacher, as opposed to the sciences or historical fields.  I find myself having difficultly with doing much more than modeling the behaviors necessary for middle-class success. I still have this crazy notion I am a math teacher and a biology teacher, which is still weird because I should be a chemistry teacher, but I attempt to teach my subjects. I enjoy my subjects. I always hated study skills classes and I don't know how to bring myself to reteach all of the skills students should have acquired from k-8th grade. Most of the students who are focused know how to study and just struggle with math and biology concepts, which I can be of great aide in helping them comprehend. But teaching those students who sleep in my class and then complain they can't understand the material because they don't know how to study or some such nonsense is grade a bologna. Its not my just to teach them math and biology and what they slept through for 8 freaking years. If your parents suck and didn't motivate you and it translated to you sucking, well, thats just how it goes sometimes. But, If you aren't succeeding because your school hasn't been offering enough resources or support on the field you wish to pursue, there is where my charge is. So, I like the book overall, but find some its suggestions to teachers unrealistic.
         The part of the book which was the most fun to read was whether I have the skills to survive in each class, and the chart for what is important to each class. I grew up in what would be considered in the community I grew up in to be the ghetto, I still recall in honors history when we were learning about the ghetto, the whole class literally turned and looked directly at me at the mention of the subject. However, my mom was from an upper-middle class family with a college degree. So I find myself between classes. I feel I already comprehend much of poverty and what is important to them, as I lived in a neighborhood of relative poverty, although I must admit I didn't get out much except to play football. I also have some survival techniques available to the middle-class, but not a comprehensive list. So, this book was not only elucidating to me as a teacher of impoverished students, but as one who has lived in both the world of poverty and the middle-class. I just hope this greater comprehension of myself allows for me to be a better teacher and person, because I can speak the done language, but I am also able to put a cover on my TPS report.

Well, there is no other way to say it, this is the worst strategically placed time for a blog assignment to be due. Ben, don't you realize some of us go out after celebrations such as this and may be regaining our senses till way after 9am. Don't you also realize most of us wait til the last minute to do everything because it gives us a freaking rush. But besides all this, hella good is what I feel. I get to have a clean slate once again and get to forget about the observations where I got 3 points taken off for not writing every objective on the board or not covering one out of 4 objectives in a review. Now I feel like its showtime. This summer felt like 2-a-days. I get a few days to recharge my batteries from them, and then I have to set the tone when its kickoff time, day one. I'm so excited I might actually jack someone up. Thank god I have football practice to go to all next week which will release some of this energy. I can not describe how excited I am for football to start. I have been running through speeches in my head since I found out I had even a slight possibility to coach. I'm trying to channel all of my coaches' sayings from the past that worked so well on me. What I'm really trying to wrap my head around though, is the fact that I don't get to hit anyone. I am going to have to depend entirely on my players to bring the wood on game day, and I know its gonna be rough for awhile. But I think the challenge of coaching will be more than enough to keep my mind distracted from that, and my knees will eventually thank me that my hitting days are over. But, oh what glorious days. 

Anne Monroe's class rocked and helped me keep sanity and have fun while many other people were simply playing up the desperate nature of our charge and how hard our hearts must be when implementing classroom management. I felt the despair of the situation was played up, partially to shock us and be sure we payed attention to the classroom management aspect of class. I am not saying this was completely unnecessary, I was not firm enough at all with classroom management, but I recall at the beginning of the summer thinking about nothing but classroom management and stifling my ideas for fun and creative instructional techniques. I see now that perhaps the base was necessary, but I still wish their was some focus on instructional techniques this summer. I think my students could tell when I was excited about teaching a lesson, and at least some got involved without much management beyond genuine interest in the topic. It is naive to think this will work all the time. In retrospect, I know all the focus on management was probably necessary and it exposed my weaknesses which is probably why I wasn't exactly stoked about it. I've been used to lecturing college chemistry, which students are compelled to pay attention to because they are there of their own accord. Switching my philosophy into a method that will make low-income black students able to learn algebra 2 and biology 2 was a metamorphosis that was challenging, but I enjoyed many aspects of it. I think all the constructive criticism we received was taken well by me, but the fact that we were graded so harshly so quickly is something I struggled with. I shouldn't care about grades anymore, I graduated college, screw it right? But it is engrained in my psyche and I guess I just didn't appreciate we had a grade that was worth a large percentage of our grade for a class the first week we were attempting to do something. Once again, thank god for Anne Monroe's class. If she had not been the teacher for our afternoon class, I don't think my attitude would have remained upbeat for the whole summer. I would have eventually burnt out with constantly being evaluated. I did like the multiple sources of criticism though, it allowed you to depersonalize it and if you heard the same thing from multiple people, chances are you have to work on that aspect. I think if something could be improved I would try to make it imperative that 1st year teachers plan their overall management strategies more cooperatively. Now I think its basically up to the teachers in individual classes their level of cooperation, and when they have differing styles and don't communicate it can be very ineffective. I would have 2 classroom management presentations for grades throughout the year, one joint one in the middle for your summer school and then one you get to modify for your own classroom. Also, I think the summer school expulsion policy cuts the balls off your consequence ladder. I don't want to kick kids out, but sometimes they should get detention. These two consequences shouldn't be related. I'd be remiss if i didn't mention Anne Monroe's construction paper lesson for note-taking and project making. I will be utilizing this lesson nearly weekly in my class. 

I have worked on talking less in my classes, and it has yielded results, although it will still be a focus throughout the year. The biggest problem I've encountered is time with my back to the students. This has occurred mostly through too much talking, not pre-writing my notes for the overhead projector, and bad positioning when I help students in independent practice. I was in shock at the amount of time one student was lip-sinking to others behind my back when I recorded one of my lessons. Although the second class showed marked improvement, it still wasn't at the level I need when I enter a classroom of 30 seniors that don't need my class to graduate. I need to become more vigilant in class and have less blind spots in general. When I do see things happen in my class I need to react without hesitation, and crack things down immediately. Summer school has made me mildly hesitant to do this because of its strict expulsion policy. Some students would have been out during the first week if we stuck to our enforcement. During the year I need to dole out the appropriate punishment and just stick to my guns. I argued with one student during the summer about her detention, and while I knew I was right, and I think somewhere she knew I was right, as Chris Rock says, " She's not in it to be right, she's in it for length and irritability". I enjoy arguing, I can do so and normally win when there is a logical answer because I use empirical evidence, and if I lose to a superior argument, I can concede without feeling dejected. That is my achilles heel in this situation, empirical evidence and whose right is irrelevant, only talking and frustration and the attempt to just make it not worth it to the teacher to argue anymore are the goal of the injured party. They wish to fight a war of attrition, and they have won many because many teachers leave, but what they don't realize, is I don't have anything else to do, and I don't really feel the need to go anywhere else. Plus I really like teaching. So I need to minimize my target area, steel my skin, and make sure I'm prepared to remove all roadblocks toward my target objective, teaching kids about bugs and graphing.