Teacher Suspended for "blogging" about students!

So a Bucks County school district suspended a teacher with pay for a profanity-laced blog about her students.

Note: the students names were not mentioned in the blog.

Note #2: She made comments alluding to the fact that she wish she could put her true comments about some students on the report cards not the list of "canned" ones the school district develops from which we must choose.

Please note (to all of those who would love to find cause to suspend me) I am simply repeating media reports. Note, I have not expressed my opinion (though it is my right, on my educational blog site). I have simply stated what I heard through the media.

I will end with this question. Do students face any disciplinary action for profanity laced facebook status updates, tweets, etc. that mention the teacher by name and where that teacher can go and how to get there (in very colorful language, might I add)?

Let me answer. Probably not. Why? Because facebook, twitter, and blog websites are outlets for such feelings.

Oooops! I expressed my opinion on my blog and didn't mention any names. I may be on the chopping block next!

This school year so far...

Greetings! We are coming to the close of our 5th month in school and this is the first time I have written since the beginning of the school year! There is a perfectly good explanation for the hiatus.

I was "warned" and in fact have seen for myself the statistics of this incoming class of 6th graders. I was told they are very low. The scores do not reflect any increase, year-over-year, in "test scores". Unfortunately these "test scores" have become an indicator of "true teaching and learning". With this bias in mind, I determined that I would hit the ground running. The results of formative and summative assessments proved the caveat reliable and accurate.

Only 35% of the incoming class were proficient/advanced in reading; a very low number that has steadily declined since this entire group was in the 3rd grade. Sad!

Well, lucky for me, I like a challenge! Lucky for them, they have a teacher who will work tirelessly to prove all of the nay-sayers wrong! I informed my students that this would be the first year that they will see an increase in test scores and true learning! I have worked tirelessly in the teaching of English/Language Arts and the subject of "Life" in general and am "humbly proud" to report that there has been a steady increase in scores on the various benchmark assessments leading up to the "big one", the PSSA!

I am proud of my students! I believe in my students! They will be successful as students! I will be successful as their teacher! I am a strong proponent of public education! It can work! It will work! I just want the world to beware, there are several 6th grade students leaving John B. Kelly Elementary School and they are ready to take on 7th grade and the rest of the world! We are room 105 and we are coming through! Ready or not, here we come!

Believe!

I'm going to make this one short....
I believe in every single child that walked through my door on Tuesday, September 7, 2010! Today, I got their autographs to prove it!

Love it or Leave it!!

A part of who I am and what I do involves professional development. I am in the midst of developing a strategy to grow and enhance my sole proprietorship, a teacher training and tutoring business.

A couple of months ago, I conducted a workshop for a local YMCA's summer day camp staff. One of the things I briefly discuss in every training involving teachers, camp staff, or school age child care staff is to love what they do or leave for some other job. While that may be an unwelcome statement, especially given today's economic situations, being involved in the social, academic, and mental development of children and youth is nothing to take lightly.

My heart was made very happy when a staff member of the YMCA informed me that a particular individual who sat in the training had not even started the day camp season. Happy, you say? Why would such a thing make me happy?

Having been involved in teaching, tutoring, mentoring, supervising, orchestrating, and directing youth programs for more than 15 years now, one begins to develop a sixth sense about discerning people that love working with children and/or are willing to learn and those who are not going to make it. Just from the way this young lady presented herself in the training, I intentionally made emphasis to leave the profession because from my perspective she didn't have what it would take to last an eleven-week camp program.

Might I have been presumptuous? Maybe. But again, one begins to develop sixth sense about such things.

Now, allow me to explain why I respect her highly! While I do not know the real reason why she didn't start and while I do not even know her as a person nor could I call her name or recognize her walking down the street, I do respect the fact that she left. Perhaps realizing that this wasn't for her, she seems to be mature enough to realize that she would do more harm than good if she were to aggressively pursue remaining on staff.

To all of the hateful, spiteful, "I hate kids" teachers out there....either love it or leave it. It's bad enough this profession is generally not respected. Realtors can go through a 10 month course and teach 3rd grade and bus drivers can take a weekend workshop and teach 7th grade chemistry. So it's bad enough the profession isn't respected. The last thing we need are teachers who have the credentials and spent the time fine-tuning their craft complaining and being bitter. Goodbye! Your time is done!

Principal's Convocation Experience...

Today I had the opportunity to be among a group a teachers selected by their Principal's to be a part of the School District of Philadelphia's Annual Principal's Convocation. Today was the first day of the annual week long convocation and I had the opportunity to be among great educators both in the classroom capacity and in educational leadership roles. Principals, Vice Principals, and teachers descended upon the new Lincoln High School in the Northeast for workshops and other break-out sessions.

The session began with a wonderful rendition of the Star Spangled Banner by a student from Meredith Elementary School. Super super kudos to that young man! This was followed by a speech by the School District Superintendent herself, Dr. Arlene Ackerman.

While I did get the opportunity to meet up with administrators and others I know throughout the district, what I liked most, though very vain was being able to update my facebook status with lines like "preparing for the Principal's conference" and "at the Principal's Convocation." Is this vain and silly, absolutely!

I am presently a classroom teacher, but I have spent several years as the Director of Youth Programming and Development with a local YMCA. So I know what it means to run a non-profit; what it means to put together a budget; what it means to supervise teachers of early childhood and other youth programs, grant writing, community partnering, paying company bills, etc. etc. etc. Sounds a bit like a principal does it not?

I am an aspiring principal and educational leader. The one thing that Dr. Ackerman said that stands out in my mind came when she introduced a new Associate Superintendent. As she introduced Ms. Penny Nixon, the entire auditorium gave her a thunderous applause. Dr. Ackerman's comment spoke to the fact that the only way she (Ackerman) would receive an applause like that would be if she grew up in Philadelphia, taught in Philadelphia, was a principal in Philadelphia and now in the position that she is in. With that comment came an even heartier applause for Ms. Nixon.

Dr. Ackerman went on to say that thinking was the Philadelphia way. AND SHE IS CORRECT! I have always held to that opinion and even blogged about it previously! That is my lot. I have grown up in this city. I love this city. I love teaching. I love youth. I love the idea that the sun rises and sets on leadership, good or bad.

I look forward to blogging about the steps that I will take and have taken to ultimately become one of Philadelphia's best and foremost educational leaders!

Should they be from Philly?

Again, everything on this blog is simply the opinion of a 6th grade teacher!

Would you vote for a Mayor who lived in Philadelphia for only a few months?
Would you vote for a Governor who lived in Pennsylvania for less than a year?
Would you elect a Senator who moved to Pennsylvania just for the job?
Would you vote for a City Council member to represent your neighborhood who lived in New Jeresy for all of their adult life?
Would you hire someone to head Philadelphia's Public School system who......I think you get the point!

They don't speak English and I don't speak Madarin Chinese....

This past summer I had a very interesting eye-opening experience. First, I vowed I wouldn't teach summer school. I did. Second, I vowed I would chose a school where I knew the numbers would be low. I chose the right building, but the students I had, didn't go there, so my numbers were larger than expected. Thirdly, the students I did have, 1/2 of them didn't speak English....so there goes my "I'm choosing this building so that I can have an easy-going summer" theory.

This past summer I taught a 4th grade, self-contained class in South Philadelphia. It was a very enlightening and eye-opening experience for me and I truly believe that I am a stronger educator as a result. Of the 20 students in my class, nearly half did not speak proficient English.  I only found that out once I finished giving my "first day of class, you best know that I am here to teach and not babysit" speech. One of the chinese students told me that there were a group of students who didn't speak English. Uh oh!

For the next four weeks, I would be trying different teaching strategies including small group work, writing and talking at the same time, over use of my hands while talking, demonstrating what I wanted to happen next, etc. etc. etc.

Prior to this, I very little experience working with students whose first language was not English. In those prior cases one spoke French with an African-tribal accent. I spoke French too, so we did just fine. In another case, one student was bilingual Spanish/English and communicated in English very well. But never did I have a whole group of students in one class who were not proficient in the language.

I owe a great deal of gratitude to the ESOL teacher that worked in the building with us this summer who pulled out the students during the literacy block.  She was consistent with the pull out group and every now and again would stop in during the Math block to check up on me and them. That's what I call team work!

But I can truly say, I've grown as a teacher as a result of that experience. Once I knew what the summer would be like I started educating myself. I began reading "Getting Started with English Language Learners" by Judie Haynes. I definitely kept an open mind and learned from them how I can best communicate with them. Once I learned how to communicate with them, the challenge was to then provide them the necessary academic/remedial support; the reason for which they were in summer school from the start.

During the course of the summer, it was pleasing to see my native-English speaker getting the hang of communicating with our English Language Learners. They would assist me in communicating our next tasks.
It is important to note we had our challenges, the teasing, the taunting, the laughing. Allow me to also point out that children are children no matter what the language or culture and don't think for one minute that our non-English speakers didn't understand what was going on and didn't come back with taunts of their own AND VICE VERCA!!

Stay open-minded. Variety is the spice of life and it's what makes this country to "magical" at times....the differences in cultures and tradtions! Many of our schools in Philadelphia that do well academically are those who student populations are greatly diversed. Check it out for yourself!