Bodine High Class Reunion

It's not a "major" year (10, 20, 25, 30, 40, 50...), but it is a year.
In a few moments I'm headed out to to an "in-between" year class reunion with my fellow Bodine High School classmates and graduates! A corps of the class worked very hard to put it all together!!

Some of us met up a few years ago and again earlier in the fall of this year, but this one is promising to be the biggest one yet and I am really looking forward to it!!

Among us are physicians, contractors, veterans of the U.S. Armed Services (thank you), psychologists, accountants, teachers, principals, systems analysts, world travelers, spouses, parents, best friends since high school, college professors, judges, white collar workers, blue collar workers, clergy collar wearers, neighbors, non-profit managers, small business owners, and the list goes on! AND I couldn't be more proud!!!!!!!!

When we were freshmen at Bodine High School for International Affairs, it was all new to us! The classes, the work, the heavy emphasis on international affairs and foreign language, the International Days, the Ms. Paige, Ms. Brown, Mr. Molowitz, Ms. Ton, Mr. Young, Dr. P. Karen Hill, etc. etc.

Now we are those adults, those young adults making an impact on the world and in our communities!!

We now have widespread internet (wish we had this in high school), MySp---ahem---Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, this and that kinda chat, KIDS with cell phones (I didn't get my first until I bought my own prepaid cell during spring semester freshman year in college) and so much more!

My, how the world has changed!

Sadly, we've also experienced unthinkable tragedies in our personal lives and even within our class since our days in high school! One of our very own, Ms. Nekeisha Eugene was taken from us too soon, right here in Philly.

Here's to "Bodine High with blue and white, your knowledge leads us to the light. The school makes life a learning day, with Bodine High we're on our way!" (Bodinians, did I get the alma mater right or nah? lol)

Here's to past memories, memories yet to be made, things we wish we could forget, things will never forget, people we'll never forget and here's to Nekeisha!

No Syrians? But...

It's intriguing  (sickening actually) to hear all of the arguments against Syrian refugees coming into the U.S and stronger border control especially in the Southwest, when the history of this country was rife with terrorism, imperialism, and racism at its origins.

The Kids Know...

The students know if you respect and care for them. Even the ones who technically aren't "yours".

When students I've never had say "Good Morning Mr. Flemming" as they pass me in the corridors and not just the regular or typical "Hi Mr. Flemming" with a wave, they see something in you. Not that "hi" is 'wrong'. It's just that a "Good Morning" or "Good Afternoon" speaks to you on a different level.

When a 1st grader said that to me this morning, I really did feel special. I greeted him back with a "Good Morning". He then said, "Have a good day Mr. Flemming". I REALLY felt special then.

It happens often, kindergarten through 5th grade, in the neighborhood, in the hallway, etc.

Love and care is shown more than it's said.

That Convo in Class tho!!

Monday and Tuesday we watched and analyzed Madagascar 3. No, we really did. It wasn't just movie watching. We examined the characters, the settings, and the conflicts. Today we debriefed and these kids DID THE THING!!!

We had the types of conversations that I'm used to having with my older students and with my last year's 207.

The questions and answers, the questions that other questions generated, the depth of knowledge (not that official DOK jargon, but the real kind), their understanding of "deep" stuff had me grinning from ear to ear and church shouting with excitement!!!

Yesterday I took a risk and asked a symbolism-related question and two of them NAILED IT!!!!

I love this!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

They won't rise to low expectations, you have to stoop pretty low for that!!

Hit Send: An "LOL" Moment

If you want a sign that this generation is Generation Tech, here's one:

I often compose emails with my students, projecting the email itself on the screen and getting their input for content. This is writing, grammar, 21st century soft skills, and whatever content area we're learning all woven into the same lesson.

There are times when I have them draft emails on a template that I xerox, which I found online.

We've emailed entomologists and authors.

Today, as we were concluding the email, I asked, "So how should be end our email?"

The kid I called on, "hit send" lol
(Not sincerely or thank you or yours truly, but "hit send")

Where science and art meet!

Some of my best ideas come spur of the moment. This following is one example.

I often think of ways to remove, not think outside of, the metaphorical "box". What can I do differently today to engage my students? How can I present the material in another interesting way? How can I make learning an EXPERIENCE today and not take them down the same rote, ritualistic, redundant road?

I had art supplies on hand for about three years that just sat there. DING! As a way to synthesize all that we learned to date in science, using these supplies, boys and girls, make an insect in 20 minutes. Oh and you have to make ONE insect, as a group! Ahhh!

Just before releasing them to work, I gave instructions and tips for working together and resolving inevitable conflicts peacefully.

Here the raw supplies each group received and small video bites from each group.

https://instagram.com/p/-cALcNy5Fz/

Some #phled polls

Check these polls I put on my TL today:
(Polling is anonymous for those concerned. I've participated in a few myself)

I'm just curious, that's all.

There are teachers out of the classroom who could do more to help the teaching teachers. #phled

— S. R. Flemming (@kellygrade6) November 24, 2015

My principal pitches in and helps when s/he sees teachers are losing preps (whatever that help looks like) #phled

— S. R. Flemming (@kellygrade6) November 24, 2015

Teachers are losing preps all over the place. #phled

— S. R. Flemming (@kellygrade6) November 24, 2015

I have at least one elected official who I can count on to get what we need in my school. #phled

— S. R. Flemming (@kellygrade6) November 24, 2015

My principal fights to get what we need in our school. #phled

— S. R. Flemming (@kellygrade6) November 24, 2015

My school has a nurse 5 days a week. #phled

— S. R. Flemming (@kellygrade6) November 24, 2015

Great(?) Expectations?

I've found that students won't....ahem...CAN'T rise to low standards. There's no reaching for low. I've also found that children respond to whatever accordingly. If they sense that you genuinely love and care for them, initially they may work and hustle so as not to disappoint you. But as time goes on and as your care for them becomes more and more evident, the wise teacher lets them know the real reason for the work and hustle!!

They also respond to disdain. If you have no great expectations for behavior, for academics, for manners, for respect, the lack thereof is what you'll get every time. In some cases, I've found this to feed some "racist on the low" type mentalities. You believe many students of color act a certain way or academically perform a certain way, therefore that's what you will always see and always expect. Shame on you! Get out of teaching, especially my kids!

Furthermore, if my children come to a building that is unsanitary (I know one)
a building that is disgusting (I know one)
a building where folks allow vomit to remain and dried up even a week later (I know one)
a building where bathrooms are deplorable, for staff and students alike (I know one)
a building where calls to have juice mopped up or blood cleaned up go unanswered (I know one)
a building where there are water fountains, but 3/4 of them don't function properly (I know one)

all of that says to a child and to the faculty, "I don't care nothing about you! Go kick rocks!"

But so long as teachers have SWBAT and IOT and have an edged in stone "Gradual Release Block", then all is well with the world. Not only that, but you'll have you-know-what to pay if you DON'T have it!! There are teachers who have been on the receiving end of distorted observations because of this (I know one).

These don't sound like great expectations to me!
My kids deserve better! I deserve better! The staff deserves better! We're not caged animals.

Those weeks!

Real teachers know, every now and then you have one of "those" weeks. And real teachers know what I mean by that without having to qualify what I mean by "those weeks".

This week was one of "those". You leave on Friday and are sleep by 4pm.  You may or may not get up by 9pm to eat, go out, watch TV, or get out of you work clothes.

On a good week, I attribute "those weeks" just to classroom aka relationship dynamics. Any relationship is tried by fire and if it's worth continuing, you fight for it! Excellent teachers do just that!

When edu-politics (incompetent admin, political mandates, stupid testing, fighting back against political idiocy, etc) whoop up on you in addition to what can be expected in the normal course of relationship dynamics, then "those weeks" become all the more cumbersome to bear!

This is what weekends are for! Let's recharge and do it all over again on Monday! Have a great one!!

Lamont Sanford

I really hate Lamont Sanford's character!
A grown man who wines and cries and treats his father like a little kid is the epitome of a wuss!!

Dummy!

I'm neither old, nor a novice!!

My mind went back to the time when I was an after school program teacher at the YMCA before the management at the West Philly branch saw something in me and promoted me to run that program along with camp and ultimately all of their youth programs.

But I started as a camp counselor and after school teacher, yes TEACHER!! I remember the way I'd come early after my college classes were done for the day, organize my classroom, prepare for the "after homework LESSON" and all! We'd have a BLAST!!

"Mr. Steve's K-1st Grade" after school class was POPPIN!!!

We learned French, we cooked, we reviewed spelling words, we got dirty, we painted, we LEARNED and had fun doing it! (Although there was that one time we were making cookies. I put them in the oven and 2 minutes later they were on fire. My class and I just eased on out of the building before the fire alarm came on. My colleagues laughed me to scorn. lol Ahhh the memories.)

I remember the fights I'd have with a colleague because, and I quote, "Mr. Steve swear he know what he's doing." (I remember laughing, not sure if it was right away or if it hit me later)

I remember being told, and I quote again, "don't disobey me!" HA! I had a few things to say about that to her face!

I'm not old, but neither am I a novice, running camps and youth programs since I was 13 years old and WANTING to do so since I was knee-high to a grasshopper! Just ask my parents!

Ahhh! Precious memories. It's years later and I'm still teaching....and fighting, and that's quite alright with me! Give me what I need and I won't have to fight! But until them, square up...

There's a 4-Letter Word...

There's a 4-letter word that can mean so much to so many at any given point in.......time!
That's it.
Time.
That's the 4-letter word.

There are adages about time. You know, like:
"There's no better time like the present."

or how about...

"Time stands still for no one."

still yet...

"Time heals all wounds." {sigh}

There are also nursery rhymes on time, or that at least allude to it. Remember this?

Vocal artists lend their voices in great harmony, singing about time.

Bible readers note that Solomon in the book of Ecclesiastes, chapter 3 writes about time:

"To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:

A time to be born, and a time to die: a time to plant..." (the theme of time continues throughout the chapter)

My profession and vocation is engrossed in "time". Planning time, prep time, minutes for literacy blocks, (don't get me started on the latest fad - this idiotic and foolish notion of the "Gradual Release Block" which in some schools is a required block of time. )

There's even a magazine with the title and twitter

Tweets by @TIME



The French have a phrase, "Laissez les bon temps rouler" Let the good times roll!!
(And given the unfortunate events that transpired just the other day, I pray and hope les Francais pourront laisser les bon temps rouler encore)

The sharing of memories begin sometimes with, "Yooo, remember that time..."
In the sharing of those memories, depending on what it is, we sometimes wish we could go back in time to the good old days.

Speaking of going back in time...
This past summer, the man I called my Pastor for more than 28 years, Bishop Todd, passed away. This afternoon, one of the gentlemen we've called our Assistant Pastor was officially installed as our new Pastor. It was no surprise at all and quite welcomed that no one from outside of our church would assume that roll. This man, too, has watched me grow up just as Bishop Todd had. We know each other very well and have worked together in ministry for a number of years. I don't anticipate that this will change!

His official appointment does help to move the ministry, the church, the mission forward as it must.
But for me, and for many of us, time is still needed to work out in our minds, the idea of existing in a world without a man who had a great impact on all us! Bishop Todd.

We're not sitting around depressed or hanging our heads. We just miss our loved one. And we, I, need just a little more (or a lot more) time.

Ain't no party like a NONSENSE party...

...'cuz a nonsense party DON'T STOP!!!

A teacher was teaching. The kids just started part 1, the independent part, of a 3-part activity that would include collaborative and kinesthetic elements to help distinguish between to, too, and two!

Teacher was interrupted by a member of a walk-through team, in the middle of teaching.

"We came to see gradual release!"

"Do you want me to make something up on the spot?"

"You're supposed to be doing it anyway!"

"Boys and girls put everything away!"

"Huh?? Wha?? Why??"

"Boys and girls put everything away!"

Teacher morphs into his/her Circus Master role!!

30 seconds after the walk-through team left...

"Boys and girls, put that away and take out what we were working on!"

Ode to A Clean School

....

Add this to the "Nonsense" column!

At XYZ School, the principal wanted each grade teacher to submit a time for their "Gradual Release" block! So when Teacher X takes his/her kids to the bathroom during a scheduled bathroom break, Teacher Y is there on Teacher X's time. Teacher Y says, "I had to change my bathroom break because of gradual release."

You want a sign that some administrative mandates are nonsensical, there's your sign!

Angry bird? Grumpy cat? No! TICKED TEACHER!!!

Just recently the School District of Philadelphia had to borrow a few million just to make ends meet. I hear on KYW News Radio 1060 this morning, a report that more than 20 charter school applications are expected to be filed by a mid-November deadline! WHO IN THEIR RIGHT MIND WOULD APPLY TO OPEN UP A CHARTER NOW???????

Ladies and gentlemen, this is the mindset of this movement in Philadelphia!! WITH WHAT MONEY??????

I abhor the charter movement in this town! There is no way you can convince me, especially after this latest idiocy, that any of this is about the kids. They are a pawn and I HATE that! School choice my foot! Politics, power, money, influence, cheap educator labor, turning neighborhoods on their heads, anti-union, favors, nepotism, mine are bigger than yours, all you need is a pulse to teach, systematically dismantle (not fix) the public education system, THIS is what it's all about!!!! Not KIDS!!!!

I'm still adjusting to teaching younger students, but every time I hear of bafoonery like this, I get a renewed sense of purpose and urgency to march my 6-foot, 220 pound dark self into my classroom and create teaching and learning experiences that are out of this world!!!!! Public schools can and do work!! We're not perfect, but as a product of this system and parents who would have nothing less, public schools work!! We have to keep working at it!!!!

Beetle Break!!

EXTRA! EXTRA!!
Beetle attempts a break for it when student knocks over beetle container!

Today while transitioning from one experience to another inside of room 207, a student accidentally knocked over one of the containers with a little beetle inside. OFF to the races went little buddy beetle!

Even more interesting, was the mad dash of the class to go and rescue little buddy beetle. While a few students shrieked in fear, the vast majority assumed the savior role and ensured his safe return to the container.

If you've been keeping up with some of these blog posts, you know that during science, the teacher and students of room 207 at John B. Kelly Elementary consider themselves junior/amateur entomologists. They become the scientist of the discipline they study throughout the year.

The entomology experience has been in a word.....an experience. Videos, live bugs, dead bugs, bug hunts in the school yard garden, research reports, art, in-class impromptu calls to entomologists at Purdue University and so much more to come including video chats with entomologists, a trip to the Insectarium in Philadelphia and wherever the winds of entomology carry them!

Saleem West

Sunday evening as I was scrolling down my TL on twitter (perusing my twitter feed), I came across hashtags from former students that read #RIPLeem. As I looked at the pics they were posting, they looked like a student I had some years back. I replied to one of my former students with the question "West?", as in Saleem West??? She replied "yes".

My.
Heart.
Sank.

I saw in my mind's eye this little, light-skin kid in my sixth grade class. This very social kid in a class that was a very close-knit class. I immediately went to my box of autographs. I went through each card until I came to his card. What am I talking about, you ask? Each year, in the beginning of the year, I distribute index cards and ask my students to put the date, their printed name, and what it is they want to be when they grow up. They must also sign their name.......giving me their autographs. When they get older and famous, they will NOT deny knowing me! lol

One year it hit me that I wasn't telling them to address it to me. So, again, in my vanity, I had them address it "To Mr. Flemming." Even if they don't get famous, I encourage them to go places, do things, go to school, make something of themselves, come back and see me for their card!! See what they put when they were in sixth grade (and subsequently, 5th and 3rd and even summer school classes).

Saleem has a card. On September 8, 2010 he wrote that he wants........wanted to be a famous NBA player. That was until he was gunned down on Sunday, November 1, 2015.

I'm always sadden when I hear of the young dying early. But then it just continues.
This one hit way closer to home! A child I had in my very own class, Saleem West. 17 shots fired and the one bullet that hit him, was the one that would end his life.

To mom, Ms. West (who was also a colleague when Saleem was in my class), my thoughts and prayers are with you mom!! I'm so sorry that you had to join the club of parents and caregivers who lost their children, their sons, to gun violence!

His card now hangs on my classroom door, as a tribute to the life of my former student, as a perpetual reminder of the potential that was cut off, as a reminder that life is precious, as an encouragement to keep pushing to BE the change I want to see in the world and to push my current third graders to do the same!

{sigh}

This violence...

When will it end?? Huh?? WHEN???????? ANSWER ME THAT ONE QUESTION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WHEN.
WILL.
IT.
END????????????????????????????????

My heart...