I can keep my ninth grade kids in their seats until the bell rings for the most part, but it is the opposite in my senior classes. If one of them opens the door, then a bunch of them start to wait out in the hall for the bell to ring. But I’ve found a [...]
Monthly Archives: February 2006
Too Much Helping
27 February 2006 – 18:44
I’ve read that kids often learn to speak at night while in their cribs. During the daytime, they observe signts, emotions, sounds like sponges, but at night, if the parents are asleep, they have nobody to listen to, and not much too see, so they talk to themselves, which helps their speech quite a bit. [...]
Dropouts
24 February 2006 – 23:24
My senior credit makeup class began the year at 19, then almost immediately went up to 34 when the kids knew that there was no way that they were going to pass algebra 2. So they come to me, because counselors must think that every high school has a senior class that gives away credits [...]
School Climate Committee Survey
22 February 2006 – 18:12
Our school’s Climate Committee is made up of students, teachers, administrators, and parents and they give a survey to all students and staff in the building about what we think about how things are at school. The kids are given a ballot with 12 issues and they have to rank from 1 to 5, their [...]
Reading IB Applications – Part II
21 February 2006 – 22:44
The following quotes were from writing samples kids must give when applying to our IB program. Assuming that they want to get in, some of these should have been left out. Some of the others were posted last week.
“….as well as improve in being able to wright stories.” [This kid also wants to be a [...]
Machismo
17 February 2006 – 18:27
In my senior credit makeup class, I have a Latino kid, Luis, who is transferring to another school in the hope of getting “free credits”. So another one of my kids, Ali, an African Muslim, is the kid in class that doesn’t mind making other kids uncomfortable.
So Ali is talking to Luis and tells him [...]
Reading IB Applications – Part I
17 February 2006 – 15:49
When applying to our IB program, the kids need to give us two writing samples. One is a personal statement, which is “prepared”. They can do it on their own, proofread it, even let others proofread it. The other is an essay they write in class, with no revisions possible, on a topic from a [...]
Best and Worst of Olympics
16 February 2006 – 18:02
The Best:
Norweigian ski coach, Bjornar Hakensmoen, saw that Canadian skier Sara Renner had broken her pole as she approached his position on the course during the sprint relay finals, so he handed her a pole. Renner ended up taking silver in the race, a race that would have certainly been lost for her and her [...]
What Do I Say to this Father?
15 February 2006 – 06:02
Regarding the kid (and son of a teacher at my school) who skipped a test awhile back, I just got an email from his father (who I don’t work with). There were two concerns of his, one was an issue I’ll write about later, and the second was this:
My second concern is much more specific. [...]
Valentine’s Day
15 February 2006 – 01:44
The kids were on a sugar high today. For some reason, the kids in the afternoon were better than the kids in the morning. Perhaps they hit their sugar-low by then.
Anyhow, in my last period, a girl had a homemade valentine on her desk from another girl (sitting next to her) that said “you are [...]
