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re: High School Education
Posted on 5/13/15 at 2:03 pm to hogfly
Posted on 5/13/15 at 2:03 pm to hogfly
"Honors Ceramics" is mostly a matter of semantics. When dinosaurs roamed the Earth and I was in HS, IF we had a ceramics class the serious students would be in "Ceramics" and the slackers would be in "Remedial Ceramics". We can argue about which is better, it just blew me away that there was such a thing.
Good story about wrestling, and I'm happy your son is competing. Probably due to good parenting or something. The key, though, is "My 10 and 7 year old". For 10 and 7 years old even this old curmudgeon can't find fault with recognizing anybody who puts in effort. But these were 18-yr old HS seniors, about to get a very rude awakening. "Wait! Where's my trophy?"
Good story about wrestling, and I'm happy your son is competing. Probably due to good parenting or something. The key, though, is "My 10 and 7 year old". For 10 and 7 years old even this old curmudgeon can't find fault with recognizing anybody who puts in effort. But these were 18-yr old HS seniors, about to get a very rude awakening. "Wait! Where's my trophy?"
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Posted on 5/13/15 at 5:03 pm to bamafan1001
quote:
Unfortunately, our administration is extremely weak when it comes to discipline. I have recommended kids have additional days of ISS but they ignored me. I will write kids up for not following my assignments or for outright defiance and they will not suspend them or send them home, they will just give them a "talk" and send them back.
Understand.
That makes it tough. Once the expectations are in place and students see administrators back them up the kids will adjust and your school year and the administrators school year would be better.
However, the opposite is also true.
Good luck.
Posted on 5/13/15 at 5:05 pm to 5thTiger
quote:
Get kids involved in music programs. The stats are out there that kids gain critical skills that lead to higher IQ's later. Listening to music is great. Playing is even better.
I do agree with this.
My idea is more of water boarding for the ears here though.
Most of today's kids don't want to listen to 8 hours of Beethoven, etc.
ETA: When I was principal I would actually play classical music in the office and sometimes allow irate parents to sit and listen a little longer than I should. It can have a calming effect as well.
I also toyed with the idea of getting rid of the loud, shocking bells and use some type of soothing music as well. Never did it though.
(And this comes from a Coach...
)This post was edited on 5/13/15 at 5:10 pm
Posted on 5/13/15 at 5:45 pm to bamafan1001
Until the Federal department of education is dismantled and the states given back the powers to educate as they see fit and no strings attached funding nothing will change.
Think that will happen?
Think that will happen?
Posted on 5/13/15 at 6:16 pm to bamafan1001
Abolish the entire construct of our education system which was designed by mind control scientists, funded by an elite who said 'I want a nation of workers, not a nation of thinkers'.
It's kind of amusing that people wonder why the education system is a mess.
Look at the root.
It's kind of amusing that people wonder why the education system is a mess.
Look at the root.
Posted on 5/13/15 at 10:19 pm to Bama323_15
quote:
Once the expectations are in place and students see administrators back them up the kids will adjust and your school year and the administrators school year would be better.
Would make for a much better school year at my school. I will definitely put into play your suggestions as best I can. The music I know I can do. The students already refuse to do the assignments I give them(writing lines of Thomas Jeffersons 10 rules) so getting them to do more when they know they wont get in trouble for refusing will be tough.
Posted on 5/14/15 at 8:13 pm to bamafan1001
bamafan1001
When I was about to begin my administration career I was given some very good advice.
We all have good ideas about how to improve our current situation. However, one of the biggest causes of our own failure is our unwilling to understand the current culture and work within that framework.
(ETA: We tend to assume everyone will see and welcome the brilliance of our plans for improvement...but rarely in education does it work that way. We have to lead people to see the issue from our perspective and then offer our suggestions...sometimes.)
Know your culture.
If your admins don't want you to add days come at it from a different angle maybe:
1. ISS is a punishment...but would your school see more benefit if it was able to become a real deterrent?
2. Teachers in your school can write kids up for failing to meet certain expectations...why can you not do the same?
3. Come up with a list of basic common sense behavioral expectations for your ISS (Arrive on time, No sleeping, complete all teacher assignments, complete your assignments, etc.) And grade them on a +/- scale. I had 10 expectations.
Ask your admins if you can use the daily grading report as a way to quantifiably hold ISS students accountable.
If students fail to meet the standard agreed upon by the admins then that day does not count toward the completion of their assigned days.
Technically you are not adding days...but only counting days that are successful and show the student is ready to return to the classroom.
I did not add many days at all to students placement...I just refused to count any day that did not meet the school's expectations.
From an administrative standpoint, you may get more willingness by asking hesitant administrators what their goal is for ISS. Then lead them in the direction of allowing you to hold students accountable.
Good Luck
ETA: I was also able to use all of my "techniques" in a good nature fashion...not always. For example, students would laugh with me about the music I played...if a new student arrived and, after raising his hand, asked to listen to something else you could see the disgust and horror on others faces. They knew that I would say "Absolutely, what would you like to listen to?" And after getting the answer I would switch to something more difficult on the ears.
Students would go out of their way to speak to me in the hallways and proudly proclaim they were never coming back, or they would sometimes give me suggestions on new music to use to torture others.
When I was about to begin my administration career I was given some very good advice.
We all have good ideas about how to improve our current situation. However, one of the biggest causes of our own failure is our unwilling to understand the current culture and work within that framework.
(ETA: We tend to assume everyone will see and welcome the brilliance of our plans for improvement...but rarely in education does it work that way. We have to lead people to see the issue from our perspective and then offer our suggestions...sometimes.)
Know your culture.
If your admins don't want you to add days come at it from a different angle maybe:
1. ISS is a punishment...but would your school see more benefit if it was able to become a real deterrent?
2. Teachers in your school can write kids up for failing to meet certain expectations...why can you not do the same?
3. Come up with a list of basic common sense behavioral expectations for your ISS (Arrive on time, No sleeping, complete all teacher assignments, complete your assignments, etc.) And grade them on a +/- scale. I had 10 expectations.
Ask your admins if you can use the daily grading report as a way to quantifiably hold ISS students accountable.
If students fail to meet the standard agreed upon by the admins then that day does not count toward the completion of their assigned days.
Technically you are not adding days...but only counting days that are successful and show the student is ready to return to the classroom.
I did not add many days at all to students placement...I just refused to count any day that did not meet the school's expectations.
From an administrative standpoint, you may get more willingness by asking hesitant administrators what their goal is for ISS. Then lead them in the direction of allowing you to hold students accountable.
Good Luck
ETA: I was also able to use all of my "techniques" in a good nature fashion...not always. For example, students would laugh with me about the music I played...if a new student arrived and, after raising his hand, asked to listen to something else you could see the disgust and horror on others faces. They knew that I would say "Absolutely, what would you like to listen to?" And after getting the answer I would switch to something more difficult on the ears.
Students would go out of their way to speak to me in the hallways and proudly proclaim they were never coming back, or they would sometimes give me suggestions on new music to use to torture others.
This post was edited on 5/14/15 at 8:28 pm
Posted on 5/14/15 at 8:21 pm to hipgnosis
quote:
Abolish the entire construct of our education system which was designed by mind control scientists, funded by an elite who said 'I want a nation of workers, not a nation of thinkers'.
I tend to not agree with many of your posts I have read.
However, there is much more truth to what you are saying here than most will want to accept.
Schools are set up to produce good workers...that is the goal.
What I wish is that we were able to have schools that produced people who could think for themselves, etc. and as a result produce good workers.
If the goal is to produce a worker, then we are not setting the standard high enough.
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