Media Mondays: Noisy Decent Graphics

A workable lesson on the importance of being specific when writing. No activities at all? Not even walking, or driving?
The things students - and grown ups too - see on a daily basis affects them quite deeply, especially if the things they see are shocking, or beautiful, or cool. We've become a very visual civilization after all.

I like to meander over to Noisy Decent Graphics sometimes to get a visual break from text, or even other graphics. For some reason,the graphics associated with elementary teaching are very Windows 95, and can sometimes be painful to look at. I personally prefer a sleeker, modern look that's functional as well as snazzy.

Which is too bad, since there are a lot of really cool, attention-grabbing stuff out there. Let's all take a lesson out of those ideas, yeah?

Photo from here.

Spring fever

Clear skies, fluffy clouds.
The warmer weather and longer days have been getting to my students - and to me as well.

I forgot my pencil bag at a place I won't visit for another week.

I forgot dad had already prepared a dessert for Mother's Day, and I bought another dessert.

I made a huge mess of my room and my work table - a literal paper, clothes, pillows, blankets, books, cds, and bags hurricane.

I have a back log of applications and queries to get done.

I haven't planned this week's lessons for both art and tutoring yet.

There are another three of those BIG post-it notes worth of to-do that haven't been done yet.

And yet I'm happy. My sloppiness is a non-priority. Life is good. What a complete 180 from around this time last year. I'm taking a minute to savor this feeling, so I can remember it and come back to it later, when I'm less benign about that to-do list.

More than I ever wanted to know about Justin Bieber

Photo from Amazon.co.uk.
My 4th grade NCLB student has to read at least 30 minutes a day. So, on Thursday, we read for 50 minutes. Because we could.

She read the above book, then wrote a short summary and her personal thoughts on the reading for her reading log. It was pretty entertaining, surprisingly.

Did you know Bieber is a child of divorce?

Did you know his family lived below the poverty line?

Did you know he won second place in a singing competition - singing the same song that shot him to YouTube fame? Which makes me wonder all the different types of successes - such a teeny-bopper idol without even winning first.

My student was really into it. Apparently, she's his "biggest fan." Good grief, she's only 9. But then, I had my own teeny-bopper idols too: I had HUGE infatuations with Billy Piper, Destiny's Child, and Twins. The only difference is that I went though the tween-obsession stage when I was nearly twenty. Late-bloomer, no?

This new student is pretty fun to teach. She works hard, and listens, and gets it with relative ease. Perhaps the flighty-ness is what's been holding her back.

The Essential 55

The name of the author of this book jumped out at me when I first saw it, but my brain just couldn't quite place it. Which meant I had to google it, of course, like everyone else of my generation when they want to find out more about something.

I should have known: Ron Clark, of The Ron Clark Academy, the students of which created that "Vote However You Like" song & dance.

The subtitle for this book says, "An Award-Winning Education's Rules for Discovering the Successful Student in Every Child." Fifty-five rules seem a little excessive to me - and there are actually more than that in the book, since many of his rules have sub-rules. Also, to be frank, some of his rules are rather out-dated and culturally insensitive. For example, under "Rule 29: The ABCs of Etiquette":

F. Do not smack your lips and chew noisily. J. Do not slurp. M. You are to use your utensils for eating almost everything.

Although it's applicable to American-style dining manners, I think people need to be more ethnic food savy than that. Perhaps Mr. Clark assume that the individual teacher would have the common sense to teach the appropriate table manners depending on the culture and atmosphere of the diner. I like to think so, since he does have some good tips, and has been an effective teacher in many ways. Maybe it's just that much more important to teach students how their surroundings affect the way people act. It's completely appropriate to slurp Vietnamese noodles, however, I think I would only do it if I were in a Vietnamese food only restaurant. Or Vietnam.

Despite some of the cultural glitches, I was surprised at how encouraged I felt while reading this book. It actually affected my own teaching - I was just so much more energized to do better as a teacher, to do more, to plan increasingly creative learning experiences for my students. It came at a good time too. I was starting to feel a little lackluster in the pedagogy department.

Overall, decent read, if a little culturally un-savy.

Easter egg stuffing

Around five weeks ago, I was up to my elbows in plastic egg shells.



This isn't the greatest photo to show the red Oompa-Loompa hands I got from making jello eggs. I forgot about the plastic gloves.



I made 15 dozen eggs in all. Not all of them were jello eggs. If they were, I would have died a drowning death in jello.



Stickers, erasers, small toys, and candy to fill regular eggs. I don't like to fill the eggs with only candy - too much candy! I also asked the kids to open up their eggs, empty the contents in a baggie to keep, and return the plastic shells to me. I'm going to re-use them next year. Recycle, reduce, reuse!

Disconnect

What they don't see, can't make them throw an administrative fit.
My newest tutee is for NCLB tutoring. The school district wants me to work on multiplication, fractions, and decimals with this student. He actually isn't all that bad at any of those topics.

Well, let me rephrase that. He does well on the curriculum that the district mandates that I use. He probably doesn't do well with any other curriculum - because the district mandated stuff is dumbed down.

He is also an English Learner. That bit of information wasn't in the profile I received, but it's pretty obvious.

So. I've decided to scrap a lot of the curriculum and bring in my own stuff for this kid - done with my boss' blessing. I just can't document the outside things I do, not even if all I'm doing is helping him with his regular homework.

Yep. Jumping hoops and going around the establishment to help students learn better. I do like tutoring.

M.C. Higgins the Great

When I first saw this book on the library shelf, I thought it was going to be a futuristic story. The first third of the book still felt like a futuristic story, even though there are clues pointing to the Depression Era. I saw it right next to Sweet Whispers, Brother Rush. Two books about non-WASPs in one library trip.

It's a pretty good book. It confuses me a little sometimes, but in a good way. But since it does confuse me, I don't quite know the right words to describe the book yet.

Plot: A 13 year old boy lives on a mountain that is being mined for coal. Published in the 70s, the message is surprisingly contemporary for today's kid audience.

Just try it. It's a good one.

Media Mondays: Science foods

Academic cookies.

I get a lot of ideas and inspiration from the World Wide Web. For example, this is totally awesome. Because, you know, only a kid would eat a cookie that looks like a petri dish of growing bacteria.

On a similar note: this is pretty cool as well. Jezebel - celebrity gossip AND classroom activity ideas, all in one place!

I think I would have these pre-made and then have younger students identify the parts before eating it. Older students can frost the thing themselves - with some plans drawn out, submitted to me, before they even touch the piping bag.

Minus plus

Spring - the advent of teenaged brain farts.
The scene: Thursday afternoon at geometry tutee's house.

Me: (looks over his shoulder as he works on a problem) Um, why are you subtracting?

Tutee: (blank stare) What?

Me: Let me ask you this - what theorem are you using to solve this problem?

Tutee: The Pythagorean.

Me: And the formula for the Pythagorean says....?

Tutee: a^2 + b^2 = c^2. (in an exasperated, condescending tone)

Me: Correct. Therefore, I go back to my first question - why are you subtracting the squares of the legs from each other?

Tutee: (stares at his handwriting) Oh. Heh.

Me: Dude, you must be super glad for the weekend.

Tutee: (sheepishly corrects his work) It's been a long day.

I always enjoy tutoring my geometry student. He's the smartest of the bunch that I tutor. He also has a great sense of humor. But sometimes, he gets a little annoyed/embarrassed, in that way a teenager gets, when I make corny math jokes. He and I both know he's laughing the hardest on the inside.

The starfish story

Two of everything, including choices.
Originally posted on my tumblr, but I thought I would post it again here.

“There once was a little boy and his father walking along the beach. On the beach was scattered thousands and thousands of starfish, drying out in the sun and dying. The little boy started picking up one starfish at a time, throwing them back into the ocean and saving their lives.

‘Why are you doing that?’ asked the father, ‘You can’t save them all.’

‘No, but I can save this one.’ replied the little boy.”

I am in a quandary tonight. And not only because I had to look up the word “quandary” to make sure I’m using it correctly. One of my tutoring students does really well when I’m teaching her during our sessions. She gets free tutoring through the NCLB tutoring program for low-performing, low-ses families through her school district.

We had a session tonight. Her mother gave me an update. She is getting F’s in math at school. It really shocked me because from what I know of her performance during tutoring, she really should be pulling something closer to a C.

Q) Why on earth is she getting straight F’s in school when she’s proven herself to know the material during tutoring? A) There are many reasons. I only know of two: 1) she’s not the most organized person in the world, 2) she has low self-confidence, believes she can’t do it, and thus does not even try.

I want to propose to my boss at the tutoring company to offer her tutoring at a discounted rate. I, of course, would be taking a proportionately discounted hourly pay too. I want to work with her on her actual homework (she says she doesn’t have any - which is a lie; I know her school’s standards) instead of the stupid remedial curriculum NCLB tutoring mandates as the sole material for her. I want to boost her confidence in school so that she can stay afloat on her own means in a sea of students (she’s in 8th grade; the sea will be bigger in high school) rather than rely on one-on-one time with a tutor for the rest of her life. I’m pretty sure my boss will agree to this proposal. She still gets a client.

But.

I want to take an NET job offer. I declined the job at first because I had already committed to tutoring this girl (she had two other tutors drop her before I came along - not good). The NET position starts IMMEDIATELY. As far as I know, it is still open. I was thinking of asking for it again once I’m finished with my obligations to this student. There is only a week of free tutoring left for her.

Thus, the quandary. Shall I let this starfish go, and save myself, one of many teacher-starfishes in Cali who are looking for full-time positions? Or should I pick the starfish up and toss it back into the ocean? Is the starfish alive enough to be resuscitated? Or will it get washed back onto dry land again and die later, and my sacrifice wasted?

I shall sleep on it.