"MY mom said..."

"Mr. Flemming, my mom said, 'Oh Mr. Flemming teaching 3rd grade now? Wish (Bob) was still at Kelly. He'd (Bob) be in Mr. Flemming's class.'"

This was part of the conversation that I had earlier today as I ran into a couple of my former students as they referred to a conversation they had with their mother about their little brother and yours truly.

Apparently a certain one, Bob, is giving teachers at a new school a bit of a run for their money and I saw it in the 10 minutes we all stood and talked. It is very encouraging to me that upon finding out that I was a 3rd grade teacher now,  mom dukes wished that a certain one, Bob, had the opportunity to have a certain no nonsense son of a...teacher...for a teacher.

Thanks for the vote of confidence and I really do hope our paths cross again, over the very vocal objections of one, Bob.

Sincerely,
Bob's nemesis if I ever have him as a student {que the evil laugh} lol

I jest, lol, although I enjoy the challenge of working with students who may be a little more challenging than others. My saying is, "they'll be alright." I believe it and I teach and interact with them bearing in mind that end goal. Oh, they WILL be OK!!!

Lowered standards for PA Reading Specialists? I object!

So the state of Pennsylvania has lowered the standard to become a certified reading specialist. Whereas before, (up until now), one would have to enroll in a graduate level program of study and take and pass the appropriate Praxis, now all one needs to do is take the Praxis and ((((BAM))) you're not a certified Reading SPECIALIST!!!

Here are my initial comments to this notice:
Forgive any spelling/grammatical errors, I was fuming!

As a recently certified reading specialist, who went through a very rigorous program of study, with hours upon hours of reading, studying, collaborating, field work, portfolio compilation, etc., I am vehement in my objection regarding Pennsylvania's lowering of the standard to become a certified reading specialist in this state!! This move seems to coincide with the ebb and flow of organizations like Teach for America and others who believe that anyone with a pulse is good enough for the the classroom. As an English/Language Arts teacher for years prior to enrolling in a graduate program for reading education/reading specialist, I took a great deal of pride in the fact that I registered to gain even more knowledge and would learn additional skills, strategies, and best practices under the tutorship of well-versed professors and senior reading specialists. No test can replace hours of study, collaboration, reading, field-work, mentorship, and the like.

Table 3

Today we watched Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, this after having already read the book. The goal, compare and contrast the book with the film--analyzing the plot and other narrative elements. But that's not what I want to write about.

It's the eating of the meatballs that's more interesting and particularly the students who sit at table 3. So, after distributing plates, forks, cups, and bread, the kids really felt as if they were in a restaurant and said as much. But table 3, (play on words intended), took the cake.

First, I admired how they all decided to hold hands and say grace before eating. No I didn't stop them! Why?

Second, I admired how one girl, after they all were served Hawaiin Punch, led them all in a toast....with their styrofoam cups! Love it!

Then, to hear a kid say, "No, this is how you're supposed to drink it" and holds the cup with one hand and sticks pinky finger out....that all made my day!!

40 New Charter apps??? Really!!??!!

So, it's my lunch break and I happened upon my twitter account. One of the first stories I see is the fact that the School Reform Commission (SRC) will be reviewing 40 new charter school applications! Under the newly passed cigarette tax, which I was apprehensive about to begin with and even more so when provisions were added, allows this criminal act!

Philadelphia faces financial shortfalls every year! If 40 new charter schools open in Philadelphia, we have all but seen the end of true public education in Philadelphia as we know it. If the SRC rejects the applicants, the charter operators can appeal directly to the state.

#Corrupt and #Bankrupt

smh

3rd Grade Perspective on Race

During our Social Studies period, the kids and I were having a discussion on the the colonies and the founding of Jamestown. Because the history that is taught tends to be lopsided, I infused in that same conversation how the Europeans of the day treated the Native Americans and how many African men, women, and children were forced over to the colonies.

I also mentioned that those of us who are African American in the class (all), were descendants of slaves and that slaves were considered property.

Somewhere during the conversation a kid said,

"That's why we can't come to school and act up because that's just what the white people want us to do. We come here to learn."

This is from an 8 year old black boy. His opinion is real to him and necessitates a conversation and he felt comfortable enough to express that thought to his black male teacher and classmates.

What I didn't do was shoot down his opinion. At 8, he already has some thoughts about how he sees the world. I did address the fact that the racist ones probably would expect that behavior from him and that not all white people are racist.

"Are we ever going to get art?"

Yesterday during our bathroom break one of my 3rd graders, "Mr. Flemming, are we ever going to get art?"

Me, "I doubt it. That's why I try to do as much art in the classroom with you as possible."

Note: At John B. Kelly Elementary School (a real public school), we have an art teacher once a week, Tuesdays. That's up from none during some years and one day more than what many other schools currently have.

-_-

(Pssst! Pssst! Hey! Shhhh, I thought you should know that today there was a rally for more charters in Philly http://www.philly.com/philly/education/Charter-school-advocates-rally-for-expansion.html, I'm guessing now we'll go back to 0 days a week for the art teacher)

Colorado Pen Pals!!!

Another African American male 3rd grade teacher, out of Colorado, reached out to me in order to forge an old fashion 3rd grade pen pal program between our two classes. He expressed just how much he anticipated the partnership between the two classes and even between us as colleagues, both being black men in a field dominated by women first and ostensibly white.

On Friday we received our first set of handwritten letters. After a weekend and two additional days off, we finally read the letters today. Yesterday I hyped the class up and read the names of those who received letters (everyone). Yesterday, we also identified Pennsylvania on a map and traveled westward with our fingers to Colorado.

Today, we identified Pennsylvania using Google Earth and let the Earth spin as we traveled westward to Colorado! After reading the letter sent to me by their teacher, they got the opportunity to read the letters of their new friends.

"Excited" does not accurately capture the energy in the air as they read their letters and were naturally drawn to each other and to their teacher with what they learned about their pen pal and with "Mr. Flemming, how do you pronounce this (name)?"

Tonight, they, with their parents, are drafting return letters!

THIS is real writing! It serves a real purpose! Every now and then there is nothing wrong with old school methods of teaching. Since being forced to move from a classroom with 21st century teaching technology, I've been forced to go old school with the teaching of some lessons. Having pen pals took me right back to some of those other old school teaching methods and mindsets, especially in a world of texting, emailing, "DM"ing, and "messaging".

To get Biblical, Jeremiah 6:16 does say in part, "...Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein,..." For purposes of this post, I won't finish the post, but it has something to do with the recipients of such a command refusing to do so!

Speaking of Community - More "Bottom Dollar" info

This is a post script to a blog post I just published
Wait, Bottom Dollar is Closing?

Speaking of "community", since typing those last few sentences, I've learned that both Bottom Dollar Foods and Aldi are both the "children" of owners OUTSIDE OF THE UNITED STATES. Bottom Dollar Foods one of the subsidiaries of a group out of Belgium. Aldi, out of Germany. Why didn't I see that one? {palm to head}

As a post script, Save-A-Lot is THE one, out of the three low cost food purchasing options, that is based in the United States. Just did some digging. Follow the links:
1.  http://save-a-lot.com/about-save-a-lot
2.  http://supervalu.com/about.html

Wait, Bottom Dollar is Closing?

Not a typical blog post for me, but a store closing that is new to the Philadelphia market and helps low income wage earners, my brain goes into over drive!

Any one of the nine Bottom Dollar Food grocery stores (in Philadelphia proper) has been a third low cost, food market option for residents here in the city in addition to Save-A-Lot (the most senior of the crew) and Aldi.

I just learned that all of their stores in Pennsylvania were sold to Aldi (yes the ones whose workers sit down to ring up your groceries and whose registers are compact, both differences from traditional markets that seem to add to the time it takes to check out said groceries).

The latest Bottom Dollar Food store to open in Philadelphia was just a year ago, in Germantown.

Random thoughts:
The lack of details has me concerned. Will Aldi reopen each store as an Aldi? Will Aldi rehire those who will be laid off and at the same or comparable rate?

Many of my customer service experiences with Aldi were unfavorable; long times, unfriendly cashiers, managers who say things like, "well what do you want me to do?", etc.

The closing of a low cost food purchasing option, which tends to be the preference of low and moderate income earners reeks of profit margins and preferences over true service to the community. But, then too, they are a business and they aren't obliged to remain dedicated to a cause of providing a low cost food option to anyone. They are in it to make money. Silly me!

In related news, read up on where these companies are from!
Speaking of Community, More "Bottom Dollar" info

Governor-Elect Tom Wolf

Needless to say that we won a MAJOR victory in electing Tom Wolf to succeed incumbent Governor Tom Corbett! Thinking in terms of students, teachers, and public education, here's my take on what this all means:

1.  We can begin to hold Wolf to his campaign promises as they relate to funding our schools and taxing the natural gas industry to help with that (not teachers...we are not a source of recurring revenue for schools, we're the teachers in them).

2.  The problems we face in Philadelphia and many other urban centers will not be fixed overnight. The solutions are as complex as the problems and will take a lot of hard work to begin to put places like Philadelphia back on the right foot. With the election of Wolf, we can make some progress in this area. He's not like his predecessor in that he is not bent on the destruction of everything in the Southeast part of the state.

3.  The SRC will not likely disappear in a year or maybe even two or three, even though we're working on it. In the interim, we at least have a governor who will likely appoint people who really are concerned and will at least make the attempt to work with parents, students, teachers and the greater Philadelphia community at large.

4. No one is perfect and there will be mistakes made. No matter who is in office, we all must be vigilant, watchful, involved, careful, and focused! We've seen the pseudo-democrat before. Wait, what's the term we use on twitter and the blogsphere? Neoliberal? I trust that we don't have that in Tom Wolf and that he really will be for the people of Pennsylvania as he seems he will be!

I'm sure there's more that I could say and that in the coming days and weeks there will be "post-script" type blog posts! Stay tuned...

Dear Me

Dear Me,
You are the teacher in your classroom! A lot of people who can't name one child in your room have a lot to say about it, but remember, YOU are the teacher in that classroom! You know your kids' struggles in the classroom and at home! You know who likes to draw, teach, write, compute, and compete! You know who prefers to read aloud and who does well reading silently. You know who buys pretzels every week and who always needs an extra dime for one! You know how far they've come and you can envision where they're headed! You know this because YOU are the teacher in the room!

You don't make millions or billions, but you are the world to your kids, your presence is priceless! You can't offer them everything, but those munchkins from Dunkin meant everything to them! That candy at the end of the day, made a kid's day! That hug was the only hug they got all week and made them feel special! That high five? Boy did that kid light up! How do I know? Because I, Stephen R. Flemming, am the teacher in this room and can't no devil in hell tell me how to be the best teacher I can be in THIS room!

Sincerely,
Me

Wrong or nah?

The directions were to identify the place of each underlined digit, whether ones, tens, or hundreds--review. We learned during our course work so far what the numbers actually mean, that each digit has a value.

Example - 582, 500 + 80 + 2 and all of that.

So, while everyone else understood the instructions and completed the review as instructed, I came across this paper and smiled. Her classmates chose to use the labels "ones", "tens", and "hundreds" and they are correct, but she understood the instructions differently and tapped into those higher order brain parts and decided to demonstrate the actual place value and not place title. Love it!!!

A Good One!!!!!

Put this under the category of "Kids Say the Darndest Things"

Recently I reviewed some basic insect facts with my 3rd graders. We learned the content and I just wanted to review, so we did. Afterward, I gave a pop quiz.

Question: When an insect goes through 4 stages of metamorphosis, what kind of metamorphosis do we call this?

Answer on one kid's paper: a good one

LOL!!!