Certified School Nurses

Today, the entire 3rd grade class took a trip to a local park, our last big "thing" for the school year as an entire class. One of my students was bitten by some insect and starting having a reaction that was "irritating and hurting", according to her.

I literally had to pause and think about what day it was and whether or not our school nurse was at our school on this particular day! Wednesday? YES!! "Baby girl, let's walk back to the school and get you some help." As we were walking, I called ahead to let our certified school nurse know what had transpired, how the patient...I mean student was feeling/reacting (I got carried away), and that we were on the way. ETA? 20 minutes. All was calm, but her mark was reddening.

I stayed with the child as our certified school nurse worked to ease her discomfort and treat the area that was giving my student trouble.

I took the time to again express my gratitude to her, our certified school nurse, for being at our school and that I believe in the idea of a (at least one) certified school nurse at every school, every day of the school week, no matter the size of the building or student population!

The School District of Philadelphia wants to outsource school health services.
Why not? Here are just four quick answers and reasons!

1.  We know that our certified school nurses are well trained and prepared to provide highly skilled services to students in public school populations, which often times means not only meeting the students' heath needs but also working closely with the counselor (if there is one, smh) to service the child's emotional, mental, and academic needs.

2.  Most, if not all of the school nurses we have left in the School District of Philadelphia, have the qualifications that could land them better paying and highly respected positions elsewhere! They choose to stay! That says a lot.

3.  You get what you pay for! The school district want to go cheap! Cheap almost always ends up costing! Contracting out health services? Suppose for whatever reason, they want out? Then what? Suppose for whatever reason, the company tanks? Then what? Suppose building principals have issues with these outside contractors and the level of care they provide? Then what?

4. The district approved 5 new charter schools!

Children deserve...

Outsource school nursing services!
Outsource guest teachers!
Layoffs!
School closings!
Limited music/arts education or no music/arts education!
EC clubs? Only if the primary goal is to increase scores!!! No dilly dally!
Reading is only to be assessed, not enjoyed!

I've long held the belief that our children are worth BILLION dollar investments!
We invest millions/billions in everything else! Stadiums, war, entertainment, why not education?!?

Children deserve highly qualified, certified, knowledgeable, capable, culturally competent, and caring teachers and faculty! Said faculty who are partly responsible (parents/guardians having a major part) for the education of the future of this country and world deserve to be adequately compensated!

Children deserve bright, attractive, up-to-date, clean, and therefore inviting school buildings! Safe learning and play spaces! Comfortable eating and study places! Green, peaceful, and calm spaces!

Children deserve a wide range of quality social and health services, ESPECIALLY, NOT EXCEPT, children who live in areas where there are higher concentrations of poverty and crime!

Children deserve a curriculum rich in English/Language Arts, Mathematics, History, the Arts, Geography, Science, Technology, Kinesthetics, Foreign Language, and more!

Children deserve a chance at hoping, at dreaming, at wondering, at exploring, at possible!
That takes resources, both financial and human!!

Instead we....I mean...THEY, many (not all) in Harrisburg, City Hall, and 440 N. Broad...send them the message that my children aren't worth it! That children who look like me aren't worth those investments, aren't worth a chance at hoping, at dreaming, at wondering, at exploring, at possible.

They send that message by gutting school buildings of everything that makes public schools, school! They want to cut costs, save money, go cheap! Everyone knows that cheap ends up costing!

Why I teach Social Studies!

So, I'm one of those who does not just focus on English/Language Arts and Math, much to the displeasure of some! But I believe in the teaching of Social Studies and all that it means, history, geography, law, civics, etc. etc. etc.

My reason and subsequent mantra for doing so is so that kids "won't think that Paris is the capital of Pennsylvania or that Texas is a country!"

I didn't just pull those random inaccuracies out of a hat. But my first week of teaching 6th grade Social Studies, I remember attempting to gauge what the students knew and put out a survey of some basic facts that I believed that should've known by 6th grade! You guessed it! Those were some of the "facts" I got!

1.  What is the capital of Pennsylvania? Paris
2.  Name one other country in the world. Texas

And then this, today....

.@CNN mistakenly labels Pennsylvania as New York in on-screen map http://t.co/TiR1Ayim2C pic.twitter.com/BH7dEKPNC8

— Philly.com (@phillydotcom) June 10, 2015

Former student makes staying, worth it!!!

I made my way to a local park to search for a child when I ran into a few former students of mine. As I continued my search, a young man suddenly began quoting a mantra I coined some years ago. As I heard the very familiar refrain and that from a deep voice, I quickly turned my head and recognized a face I hadn't seen in several years!!

It felt good that this kid, now a young man at Lincoln University is in college!
It felt good that he remembered "the motto!"
It felt good that he thought enough of his former teacher, who had a one track mind, to get my attention by attempting to hide behind another former student and reciting "the motto"!

It's the little things that make my remaining here, despite.......stuff.....worth it!!!!!!

What's REALLY going on!! (In the classroom...)

So, since the "data" show that I'm a failing teacher by the most insane measures, I consider it my responsibility to bring to you the actual learning that takes place in my classroom, including what happened about 45 minutes ago!

We're not just watching Lion King II: Simba's Pride, but we're analyzing it like we would any literary work. (This is actually the first time that I've done this all year and I could kick myself in the head for NOT doing this! As a middle school level ELA teacher, I did it all the time and it really did help the children with comprehending and enjoying the literature. This year, being my first year in 3rd grade, I didn't know what to expect during the course of this year at all, I digress...)

I paused the video at some point when the fight between the outsiders and Simba's pride was beginning to end. A child noted the similarities and differences between the war with the outsiders and Simba's pride with the Civil War (which we've been studying).  She effectively compared and contrasted the two situations much to my amazement!!!! BUT, it's not a constructed response on a state mandated test, so then I guess such real learning doesn't count!

I love the fact that they are learning. Conversely, I hate the fact that "learning" has been so narrowly defined by non-educating, number crunching, try-to-make-everything-so-neat-and-reformy-by-relegating-education-to-an-algorithm folks!

Calm Down!!

I know this teacher at a school, somewhere here in these great United States, who had a child to bite her. This child, apparently, is known for causing havoc in his school building and this teacher has been advocating for this child to get help. Nominal help was provided, but based on her accounts, it seems to be extremely limited at best and not very effective, overall. The incident was written up and when the teacher went to follow up, she was told, and I quote, "calm down." Apparently, this principal uses such phrases all the time whenever teachers have concerns and bring them to him/her.

I wonder if the child were to bite this principal, if s/he would be so calm, cool, and collected?

Hmm...

The Memoirs of a "Failing" Teacher

My third grade students responded to a constructed response prompt based on a poem by Emily Dickinson. This constructed response asked the students to dissect Dickinson's very complex use of the English language by determining the narrator's intent. It was a first draft based on a poem that generated a great deal of discussion and disagreement among many educated adults including English teachers, English MAJORS and other college graduates! The poem they were given was certainly developmentally inappropriate for third grade students who are still learning how to read and write well.

The second constructed response prompt was based on a nonfiction article about the current state of eagles and how laws passed by the government helped to save them.

One, the two constructed response prompts did not require the same type of thinking nor evidence. Two, the second passage, as was the first, was taken from the benchmark assessment given by the school district and was also a first draft. Three, I did not teach the article or poem, nor did the children have an opportunity to write anything but a rough draft.

If authentic and meaningful assessment of teaching and learning is the goal and measuring children's writing progress is the means to that end, I'd suggest viewing samples of writing from the initial planning stages to when those same pieces are considered by students to be final drafts and therefore publishable copies of their work. If students drafted writing pieces, then received further instruction on improving their writing, were given a chance to rewrite their pieces, we'd truly be able to gauge to some degree if the teaching was effective. Even then, teaching is cyclical, an ebb and flow of considering what worked and what did not for the class as a whole and for particular students. I constantly self-evaluate, collaborate, and reteach.

From what was submitted, we can only barely determine if the students even understood the pieces they had to read in order to respond to the prompt. Writing conferences with students would help determine that. I cannot even determine whether or not it was the way the question was phrased that gave them some difficulty. Writing conferences with students would help determine that as well.

Comparing the results of rough drafts of two different writing tasks, one of which is beyond the zone of children's proximal development, further comparing the results of said drafts without any teaching associated with either task and to suggest that I, as a teacher, failed them in some way is offensive and irresponsible.