Comments

So, Christopher has her again?

-- SusanS - 20 Sep 2006

oh yeah

-- CatherineJohnson - 20 Sep 2006

I find the whole thing extraordinary.

They've had constant parent complaints about her, and I get the Math Chair telling me, "You're the only parent with a problem."

listserv time

-- CatherineJohnson - 20 Sep 2006

I know for a fact that a mom met with the new principal last week and told him Ms. K is a "nightmare."

-- CatherineJohnson - 20 Sep 2006

That mom has a daughter, interestingly enough.

That's the first girl I've heard of who had trouble with Ms. K

She was in Ms. K's class the first year she taught here, when kids were getting average grades of something like a C or even a D on tests

-- CatherineJohnson - 20 Sep 2006

Every single test she gave that first year was like the tests she gave at the end of Christopher's year last year

My neighbor was losing her mind

-- CatherineJohnson - 20 Sep 2006

Ed's on the case

-- CatherineJohnson - 20 Sep 2006

-- CatherineJohnson - 20 Sep 2006

Just talked to Ed.

He said that a core rule of teaching is that you don't humiliate students in front of their peers.

If a student said something he thought was inappropriate his approach would be:

first time: let it go

second time: discreetly ask the student to stay after class, without any other students being aware of the situation, and tell him you think the word or expression isn't a good one to use in the class & you'd appreciate his choosing another way to express himself

Ed says he would definitely wait for another incident before "taking it to another level."

That's Character Ed in Irvington, it appears; it's all balled up with Zero Tolerance, which was a bad idea to begin with.

Now we've got two bad ideas mooshed together.

-- CatherineJohnson - 20 Sep 2006

Bad enough to have her the whole year, but another one? Is she the only one who teaches algebra? That's just a cruel joke.

I don't understand why you were even called. If a teacher doesn't want you to say something, they usually say "don't say that" and that's the end of it, even if it's a bit unfair or not something I would take offense at. That's what most of them do. That just doesn't strike me as a guidance counselor/call home kind of offense.

There's a common sense deficit over there or something. They're just oddly uptight about the most benign things.

-- SusanS - 20 Sep 2006

Bad enough to have her the whole year, but another one? Is she the only one who teaches algebra? That's just a cruel joke.

I don't know what on earth to think about that school & it's management.

That class is a mess, and in spite of what the math chair said to me, they know it.

To make a class of kids take math from her two years in a row would be educational malpractice if it were possible to sue school districts.

Which it is not.

-- CatherineJohnson - 20 Sep 2006

don't understand why you were even called. If a teacher doesn't want you to say something, they usually say "don't say that" and that's the end of it, even if it's a bit unfair or not something I would take offense at.

exactly

the whole thing is ridiculous - that's what Ed was saying

these issues aren't new; kids have been saying inappropriate things in classrooms for many, many years

by now there's a set protocol for handling it, and this wasn't it

in fact, she's violated some core principles of professional behavior

-- CatherineJohnson - 20 Sep 2006

there is a profound common sense deficit

it really is striking

-- CatherineJohnson - 20 Sep 2006

me: “And we don’t think you treat our child well, so if you want to go head to head on this, we can.” *

Woo hoo! Go get 'em Catherine! You'd have to do much more than this to a teacher who hasn't earned it to get me to think you're a crazed lunatic nutcase (though I can see your point about new readesr...)

:)

-- StephanieO - 20 Sep 2006

even more so with the nature of the "offense"

Asians are smart at math.

Period.

That is true, and it was said as an observation, not a put-down to Asians

Christopher is half-Jewish & he has a Jafro

This stuff is way, way out of the ballpark

-- CatherineJohnson - 20 Sep 2006

You'd have to do much more than this to a teacher who hasn't earned it to get me to think you're a crazed lunatic nutcase (though I can see your point about new readers...)

I CRINGE to think of a brand new reader seeing this as his/her first post.

-- CatherineJohnson - 20 Sep 2006

I was initially horrified at having said that.

It just flew out of my mouth.

I practically challenged her to a cage match.

But after I calmed down a bit, and thought about it.....I realized that I had said exactly what I meant, I hadn't used swear words, I hadn't used nasty sarcasm, I hadn't told her she was an incompetent teacher.....

We are the "sinned against" here, or, rather, our child is.

Basically I gave her fair warning.

Pursue this and it's going to get ugly.

-- CatherineJohnson - 20 Sep 2006

PLUS this woman has GOT TO FOCUS ON TEACHING MATH

For her to veer off into character education and racial/ethnic appropriateness is horrifying.

-- CatherineJohnson - 20 Sep 2006

Geesh, Catherine, get him out of her class. Now. Blame it on personality conflict, or phase of the moon, or whatever. Otherwise you're going to be spending all of this year's energy on Ms. K problems, and Christopher is going to me miserable. Is there someone else who is teaching the course (and if there is, just how did Christopher "happen" to get in Ms. K's section)?

-- OldGrouch - 20 Sep 2006

For those of us slow on the uptake, a Jafro is a ... what? Jewish Afro? Can hair be Jewish? Help!

-Mark Roulo

-- KtmGuest - 20 Sep 2006

Mark, you've got it right. Think James Levine

-- OldGrouch - 20 Sep 2006

Catherine, I agree with Old Grouch. It sounds like this woman enjoys conflict. I guess it masks her inability to teach and assess.

-- SmartestTractor - 20 Sep 2006

My experience with getting a kid out of a teacher's class is it's on par with trying to get out of the draft (for those of you who remember when there was one of those). I tried to get out of a teacher's class once, but it was me against the school, and I didn't have my parents batting for me. Finally the counselor met with my parents and told them they wouldn't do it because the teacher said I apparently had a problem with "attitude". (This was a geometry teacher who didn't teach). So I was stuck with her for the whole semester. And of course if parents do go to bat, as you and Ed will, you're viewed as helicopter parents which is the equivalent of a doctor telling a patient their problem is psychosomatic. I think there are parent advocates who represent parents to school administration, and it might be worth your while to look into that. We consulted one once when trying for an IEP. They are good at what they do, and know what the risks are (i.e., retribution) and when it is worth it to fight, just like a lawyer will advise when it's worth it to sue. And they are objective.

-- BarryGarelick - 20 Sep 2006

You could always take your inspiration from this woman.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/schoolme/2006/09/the_culture_of_.html

-- SusanS - 20 Sep 2006

Otherwise you're going to be spending all of this year's energy on Ms. K problems, and Christopher is going to me miserable. Is there someone else who is teaching the course (and if there is, just how did Christopher "happen" to get in Ms. K's section)?

she's the only one teaching Phase 4

-- CatherineJohnson - 21 Sep 2006

Christopher wanted to change classes last night. He started crying a little....but I didn't encourage him - meaning, I acted the way you do when a little kid has fallen down and is studying your face to see if he ought to bust out crying or not.

I looked at him like, "See! It doesn't hurt!"

So he didn't cry.

-- CatherineJohnson - 21 Sep 2006

and....uh....yup

we are going to be spending the whole damn year on Ms. Kahl

-- CatherineJohnson - 21 Sep 2006

actually, I'm going to figure out some way NOT to do that

Barry's right about the class-changing business

Half the school tried to get out of Mrs. Roth's class last year

We only pulled it off by dint of being brutally aggressive AND playing the "retard" card

If she hadn't called the class "retards" I don't think we would have made it

AND we paid a huge price

Fried despised us from then on

I still haven't told you all about my last hour-long meeting with him, the day he was leaving town

The administration pawned me off on him, because of all the emails I'd sent asking about the Honors science class

The guy LOATHES me

I've never been so disliked in my life

He had this look of visceral.....hate.....pasted across his features as he was explaining how "I make the hard decisions" and etc.

-- CatherineJohnson - 21 Sep 2006

Apparently the term of art these days is jewfro, not jafro (which dates me, I realize)

That's what Christopher actualy said, "Jewfro."

jewfro's here, Jewfros there, Jewfros everywhere (scroll down)

-- CatherineJohnson - 21 Sep 2006

Jewfro defined by the Urban Dictionary!

Jewfro gear at Cafe Press!

-- CatherineJohnson - 21 Sep 2006

a Jewfro petition

-- CatherineJohnson - 21 Sep 2006

Finally the counselor met with my parents and told them they wouldn't do it because the teacher said I apparently had a problem with "attitude". (This was a geometry teacher who didn't teach). So I was stuck with her for the whole semester. And of course if parents do go to bat, as you and Ed will, you're viewed as helicopter parents which is the equivalent of a doctor telling a patient their problem is psychosomatic. I think there are parent advocates who represent parents to school administration, and it might be worth your while to look into that.

Barry is soooooo right about this.

We created massive enmity last year extracting Christopher from Mrs. Roth's class.

Not that there's anything wrong with that.

-- CatherineJohnson - 21 Sep 2006

and and and - - - - WE ALREADY SHOT OUR WAD ON THE STUDENT ADVOCATE

Ed called her up because we're also in the midst of a THING with Jimmy, which may involve a $3000 payment to an edu-attorney.....so long story short we already spoke to the student advocate and her whole approach was to explain to Ed why school districts don't have the resources they need to be in compliance with the law

-- CatherineJohnson - 21 Sep 2006

So that's out

-- CatherineJohnson - 21 Sep 2006

back to Jewfros: the other thing about Jewfros is that every child on earth who has a Jewfro is mortified by the fact that his head is covered with tight curly hair

-- CatherineJohnson - 21 Sep 2006

mortified

-- CatherineJohnson - 21 Sep 2006

Ed spent his whole childhood being mortified

Now Christopher is spending his childhood being mortified

So now he's gotten sent to the guidance office for SPEAKING THE WORD Jewfro

-- CatherineJohnson - 21 Sep 2006

Barry I am seriously thinking lawyer, nonetheless

I have GOT to get my quick report up on the lawyer we saw

It was extremely bad news, but otoh the whole point of being a lawyer is to figure out some novel reason for grounds

-- CatherineJohnson - 21 Sep 2006

Ed says Ms. Kahl probably didn't realize Christopher was Jewish. He says people don't necessarily recognize "Berenson" as a Jewish name, and if Christopher's name had been Bernstein she wouldn't have sent him to guidance.

I suppose.

I suppose it makes sense she didn't realize Christopher was Jewish seeing as how I didn't realize she wasn't

I said to Ed last night, "Isn't Ms. Kahl Jewish?" and he said, "She doesn't look Jewish."

And I thought, huh.

After all these years I still have no idea what "looks Jewish" means?

Or "doesn't look Jewish"?

You'd think I'd have some idea what "doesn't look Jewish" means seeing as how I have now spent many years not being Jewish.

-- CatherineJohnson - 21 Sep 2006

Ed says Ms. Kahl probably didn't realize Christopher was Jewish. He says people don't necessarily recognize "Berenson" as a Jewish name, and if Christopher's name had been Bernstein she wouldn't have sent him to guidance.

I suppose.

I suppose it makes sense she didn't realize Christopher was Jewish seeing as how I didn't realize she wasn't

I said to Ed last night, "Isn't Ms. Kahl Jewish?" and he said, "She doesn't look Jewish."

And I thought, huh.

After all these years I still have no idea what "looks Jewish" means?

Or "doesn't look Jewish"?

You'd think I'd have some idea what "doesn't look Jewish" means seeing as how I have now spent many years not being Jewish.

-- CatherineJohnson - 21 Sep 2006

Christopher got an 88 on his first math test.

He got a higher grade than the two math brains in the class, the kids who always have the top grades.

hah!

So he's got a 91 on the pop quiz & an 88 on the test.

Finds subject matter difficult!

-- CatherineJohnson - 21 Sep 2006

"Finds subject matter difficult" has to go.

That's either coming off his record OR they're going to have to solicit letters from Mrs. Panitz and Mrs. Woeckener saying he doesn't find subject matter difficult OR I'm going to figure some way to involve an attorney.

Also, I'm thinking if a teacher as gifted as Ms. Kahl ("Ms. Kahl is a fine young teacher") judges Christopher to have an innate, intrinsic problem comprehending math, then it's time for them to do a work-up.

They have a duty, a FEDERAL OBLIGATION UNDER THE LAW.

They need to roll out those high-class, fancy-shmancy assessments, the ones they only give to the IEP & 504C kids, and give one to Christopher.

Then provide us with a three-hour meeting staffed by six well-paid experts going over every tiny aspect of Christopher's comprehension of math.

If I'm going to have FINDS SUBJECT MATTER DIFFICULT on my kid's report card I don't see why I'm spending my time getting Bob Jones University to certify me as a standardized test-giver.

My district can do the testing.

-- CatherineJohnson - 21 Sep 2006

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Two weeks into the year — TWO WEEKS.

And we're already in a battle.

-- CatherineJohnson - 21 Sep 2006

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wow

that LA story looks great

I'll read tomorrow....thanks!

-- CatherineJohnson - 21 Sep 2006

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THURSDAY MORNING

yup

I'm thinking......if Christopher FINDS SUBJECT MATTER DIFFICTULT, it's time for many thousands of dollars & man-hours to be spent by the district on TESTING

-- CatherineJohnson - 21 Sep 2006

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EXPENSIVE TESTING

-- CatherineJohnson - 21 Sep 2006

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-- CatherineJohnson - 21 Sep 2006

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Hi, Smartest Tractor!

How's your year going??

-- CatherineJohnson - 21 Sep 2006

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I agree with Old Grouch. It sounds like this woman enjoys conflict.

You know — I don't think she does.

Ms. K is a very odd duck. No one knows what to make of her — and no one can cess it out from the kids' responses, either.

The girls all seem to love her; most of the boys have a very tough time with her; and that's about as far as any of us gets in terms of perceiving how the kids are faring.

On the phone yesterday she seemed stunned that I would come back at her the way I did. I was a little stunned, too, but I'd bet the ranch a seasoned teacher would have known that one was going to be trouble.

Ms. K is not a mean person. At least, I don't perceive her that way and I don't get the sense anyone else does.

She's not a bully.

I could be wrong about this, but the fact that after a Year Of Pain dealing with her class I still don't perceive her as a mean person tells me she probably is not a mean person.

Ms. K is very spacey. She's "out of it." She talks in a monotone; she has a vague expression on her very pretty face, and her expression doesn't change much.

I've asked myself, frequently, whether I need to "reframe" — whether I need to see her as a very high-functioning autistic person. Her social intelligence just isn't there.

That would be just my luck, having an autistic middle school math teacher.

The "Jafro" and "Asians are smart in math" business could be a classic example of an autistic literalism vis a vis the character-ed principle of tolerance.

She seems to be interpreting tolerance to mean that all words or observations related to ethnicity are "inappropriate for math class." And she doesn't seem to have the social understanding that a member of a minority group can use ethnic terms that non-members can't. Blacks can call themselves "nigger"; Jews can say they have Jewfros. Everyone knows that, except for Ms. Kahl. That's classic autistic-like not-getting-it.

Still, she doesn't quite "read" autistic, either......although it's entirely possible that I don't have a perceptual category for high-functioning, borderline female autistic person.

Here's another example.

Time and again she's given the kids problems that were way over their heads - all of their heads - then not taught them how to do the problems and then, when they all missed the problem, has told the kids, "This is easy."

She doesn't seem to say this in a joshing, spurring-the-kids-on kind of way.

She may actually think these problems are easy and that 11 year old children who barely know fractions at this point should also think they're easy.

If that's what she thinks (from this distance I can't know), that would be consistent with borderline or very high-functioning autism.

I have to say, though, that I have no idea what's going on with her.

But "enjoys conflict" or "mean" - all of those things - just don't seem to be it.

-- CatherineJohnson - 21 Sep 2006

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I'm on a roll.....

Putting "finds subject matter difficult" on a kid's report card would also be a classic boneheaded-autistic thing to do.

You're SOOOO asking for trouble doing a thing like that; you're virtually guaranteeing yourself parental payback.

And yet Ms. Kahl seemed completely surprised to learn that Ed and I think she doesn't treat our kid well.

A very high functioning autistic person is the exact kind of person who would put "finds subject matter difficult" on the report card.

Christopher was coming in for extra help all year long, so she concluded that he finds subject matter difficult, and she said so.

Meanwhile we were sending him for extra help for social reasons.

A friend from Scarsdale told me that Scarsdale students automatically move their GPA up a full letter grade by going in for extra help. Everyone knows about it, so everyone does it.

So we started sending Christopher in for extra help on the Scarsdale principle that extra help either earns you brownie points OR gives the student help with the topics that will be tested.

Our second reason was that the extra help session was simply more time on task. He was getting some more distributed practice.

So we had fairly complex "social" reasons for sending him to extra help.

We were dogged about it; we didn't let him miss a single session of extra help. In the beginning Ms. K was telling him he "didn't need to come," but we made him go anyway.

Christopher probably went in for more extra help than any kid in all 3 classes!

So Ms. K interpreted that to mean the reason he came in for more extra help than any kid in all 3 classes was that he FINDS SUBJECT MATTER DIFFICULT.

-- CatherineJohnson - 21 Sep 2006

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Needless to say there's not going to be any going in for extra help this year.

-- CatherineJohnson - 21 Sep 2006

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hmm....

I've kind of talked myself into this hypothesis.

I'm going to mull.

long & short, I don't understand the situation

-- CatherineJohnson - 21 Sep 2006

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Catherine,

You have a truly wonderful sense of humor. You seem to be losing it a bit over the Ms. K. situation.

Is there some way you can get your son to look at this as learning to deal with difficult people earlier rather than later? Make a joke of it? Perhaps have him identify for you the most outrageous thing she does each day and then the winner for the week?

As you've noted elsewhere, colleges are going to judge him on reading and 'riting a lot more than 'rithmetic.

Right now the most important thing for your son is to realize that he can trust his judgement that there's something wrong with this situation but that, even so, he can deal with it. Plus he's getting a good start on stories to tell years from now.

-- SusanJ - 21 Sep 2006

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Ms. K is just the current focus.

I'm losing it over the district as a whole.

We're now completely fuzzy. There is no mention, ever, of academics. It's wellness, safety, and character education. Period.

Plus - and this is something I haven't written about yet - a scarcity model for Regents courses.

Basically we're paying extraordinarily high sums of money for gatekeeping.

Our scores fall off a cliff after grade 4 & our low SES kids are failing.

-- CatherineJohnson - 21 Sep 2006

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The "finds subject matter difficult" business would be funny if we didn't have a Harvard-like admissions process for Regents and Honors courses.

I'll HAVE to get that posted. Context is everything.

If the school's policy was to provide rigorous courses for every child willing to do the work, "finds subject matter difficult" would be funny.

But it's not.

The school's explicit approach (I got all this in my final hour with Principal Fried) is to create fewer Honors/Regents courses than kids with the ability and/or desire to take them, and then to engage in a HUGE selection process that goes through the kids' records with a fine tooth comb and tilts odds in girls' favor to boot.

Worse yet, Ed and I are pretty much in charge of dealing with all of this. All of the parents I know are upset, and all of them are afraid to some degree or other.

I've had parent after parent tell me, "They'll go after your child."

Seriously!

"They'll go after your child."

-- CatherineJohnson - 21 Sep 2006

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You're right about Christopher, though.

If he were starting the year with Ds in math, I'd feel differently.

But he's starting the year great, so whatever goes on with Ms. K will be character building, or character strengthening, rather.

That's what happened last year.

Last year really was wretched, but Christopher came out of it great.

I hate to quote Nieztsche (that which doesn't kill me strenghtens me, etc.) but it's true.

Christopher felt fantastic - and emboldened - by the mere fact of having survived 6th grade.

He's much stronger and more mature this year than last, so Ms. K and her eccentricities will be a learning experience.

That's probably the tack I'm going to take.

I'm going to encourage him to see her as "eccentric."

-- CatherineJohnson - 21 Sep 2006

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Which is probably correct.

"Eccentric" - I thought of that term just now, responding to you - is probably the word that best captures the situation.

-- CatherineJohnson - 21 Sep 2006

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This whole autism angle re: Ms. K is interesting. It's the classic lack of perspective-taking or thinking that everyone feels the same way you do, along with the emphasis on literal, black-and-white rule following, no exceptions made. I deal with this on a daily basis with Megan; she can't fathom why someone would not understand some dialogue quote from a movie she comes up with out or the blue, or does not understand why in the world anyone would have a different favorite color, food, or movie that she does, just like Ms. K can't seem to figure out a bunch of middle-schoolers can't immediately figure out a math problem the same way she does.

-- KathyIggy - 21 Sep 2006

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well.....now that I actually sat down and wrote this all out.....I don't think it's a "wrong" (wrong meaning mean or unfair as well as inaccurate) way to try seeing the situation

It's the classic lack of perspective-taking or thinking that everyone feels the same way you do, along with the emphasis on literal, black-and-white rule following, no exceptions made.

yes!

That's a great line - incredibly succinct.

This has been hard for me, because I have VERY severely autistic kids....and even though I work with Temple & my dad is (I'm pretty sure) HFA, it's not necessarily easy for me to spot from this distance.

Every single phrase you just used would describe Ms. K very well from my perspective.

One of the things that's been hanging me up is the fact that the girls like her so much.

I keep thinking that there must be something I'm not seeing; there must be some way she's relating to the girls & not relating to the boys (or some way in which the girls are able to "read" her better)....

But I'm not sure that has to enter in.

The other thing is that, perhaps, if she has some bit of autism and does feel more comfortable with the girls she doesn't hide that feeling.

There's no question girls are easier to deal with in the classroom at that age than boys. Boys are a holy terror! It's amazing!

Ms. K might see that the girls are more respectful and cooperative and readily reveal the fact that she's liking being around them a whole lot more.

-- CatherineJohnson - 21 Sep 2006

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literal black-and-white rule following

That's it, exactly.

To anyone with autism the idea that "nigger" is a bad word but it's OK for black people to say it just isn't going to make huge amounts of sense.

I don't think.

-- CatherineJohnson - 21 Sep 2006

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I think I've decided to "work with" this hypothesis & see how it goes.

It means 3 things immediately:

1. if Ms. K is to change any of her teaching she'll need very direct, very explicit instructions from her mentor teacher or the principal - she'll need to be told, directly, "Don't depend on the boys to ask questions."

2. She's going to carry on doing socially obtuse things

3. She's not going to be taking any hints (restatement of #1)

On the plus side it means that apart from her crazy tests, she's not going to be throwing us any curves.

She will continue to be highly consistent & predictable!

-- CatherineJohnson - 21 Sep 2006

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And she doesn't seem to have the social understanding that a member of a minority group can use ethnic terms that non-members can't. Blacks can call themselves "nigger"; Jews can say they have Jewfros. Everyone knows that, except for Ms. Kahl.

I haven't gotten to the end of the comments yet, but I'm afraid that I'm coming to different conclusions.

Did she overreact to this situation? Absolutely it didn't warrant a call home. It could have been handled with a "that's not a math class word" in the classroom. Simple, direct, done. Lots of words aren't necessarily appropriate in math class (how did this even come up in math?!) That would have been the end of it, eh? You'd never have known, Christopher could have filed that detail away in his head for future reference and the problem wouldn't have been a problem.

I'm guessing though that she is feeling hurt about everyone's complaints and so when your kid did something she thought was bad, some part of her went, ah hah! I'm good, he's bad, I can prove it.

BUT, no, black kids using the N word in a classroom? Not okay, other than in a discussion of words used to denigrate others. I can't imagine the situation in which, as a teacher, I wouldn't address the use of that term (and many others). Likely the address would be though as mentioned above -- "please don't use that word in my class." Or if it were repetitive, well then the inability to follow my classroom rule to stay on task might warrant a call home.

It's a shame -- I don't know how you'll ever salvage this -- I can't believe that she's your only choice!

-- JenL - 21 Sep 2006

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She's it!

And yeah, you're right, "that's not a math class word" should have been the end of it.

However, I REALLY object to very young teachers policing language in this fashion.

"Asians are good at math" isn't a racist comment; it's a statement of fact.

"Jewfro" is the term of art for curly Jewish hair. Ed has been calling his hair a Jafro for 30 years. (He hadn't heard Jewfro, which is the new term.)

It's the only word there is for that kind of hair.

Period.

-- CatherineJohnson - 21 Sep 2006

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There's probably an issue of "Why are they talking about hair at all," don't you think?

For me, the one thing that is wrong about Christopher saying "Jafro" is that he was talking about hair not math.

Apparently she doesn't have terrific control of the classroom (and I am THE LAST PERSON TO TALK ABOUT THAT!)

I would have come down on Christopher (and the other kids - it was a whole scene) for goofing off.

-- CatherineJohnson - 21 Sep 2006

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Actually, I should probably give the context.

Apparently one of the kids in the class frequently talks about his hair being a Jewfro. (He's Jewish.)

The other kids were complaining about not being able to see over his big head & Christopher said the kid's head was big because of his Jewfro.

That's classic.

Christopher is the "quiet kid" (I know this for a fact after having driven him and five of his friends to a ballgame recently) so when he finally managed to chime in he got dinged -

I told him that night, "Go back to being quiet."

-- CatherineJohnson - 21 Sep 2006

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Yikes.

This is worse than I had realized.

"They'll go after your child."

I have a somewhat related personal story to share. My 92-year old father recently reminded me that when I was in high school, he'd gone in to complain to my principal about something and the principal had gotten out my permanent record and noted that I'd gotten some very high grade, something like 99 and one-half, in some course. And he told my father that such a high grade wasn't possible and he crossed out that one-half.

This may have been why I was only the salutatorian and not the valedictorian of the class of '58!

Now here's the Paul Harvey ("rest of the story") part.

My high school has an alumni newsletter and several years ago I read that this valedictorian (who I had known but not kept up with) had died so I located her obituary in our home town newspaper's online archives.

She likely wrote most of the obituary herself as she died at the age of 63 after fighting cancer for year. In any case, it included a brief history of her life starting with, "After graduating as valedictorian of her class at ... High School ...."

I'm doing fine, thank you.

-- SusanJ - 21 Sep 2006

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back to Jewfros: the other thing about Jewfros is that every child on earth who has a Jewfro is mortified by the fact that his head is covered with tight curly hair

Ed spent his whole childhood being mortified

Now Christopher is spending his childhood being mortified

There is an upside. My youngest brother has tight curly hair, though that's from the Maori side of the family.

Mum always kept his hair very short, but when my brother was a teenager he decided to grow it on the theory that it would straighten out with enough weight on it like mine does. Of course, we told him it wouldn't before he started and it didn't. He just grew this great impermable mass of curls on his head.

But it had a wonderful upside. Girls would come up to him to ask "is your hair permed?", which meant they were making the first move in a conversation and he was away flirting.

-- TracyW - 22 Sep 2006

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Getting rid of a bad teacher in schools is like getting rid of a bad manager in work.

Practically impossible, and you have to spend a H*LL of a lot of political capital to do it.

-- CarolynJohnston - 22 Sep 2006

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To anyone with autism the idea that "nigger" is a bad word but it's OK for black people to say it just isn't going to make huge amounts of sense.

People have gone JUST NUTS about people saying anything that might be remotely construed as racist. I just went through a bunch of HR interviewer training, and there was a lot of discussion of diversity; so much, in fact, that it made us all massively uncomfortable, especially since we had so much else to learn (such as what, by law, we are not even allowed to ask someone in an interview). You're supposed to not even notice that someone is different, unless of course it's possible that you might be unconsciously biased against them, in which case you must be acutely aware at all times that they are different and you might be unconsciously biased against them.

Temple would call it a 'sin of the system', like parking in a handicapped spot (something I once did, briefly, to my extreme sorrow).

-- CarolynJohnston - 22 Sep 2006

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I just bought the movie rights to the Ms Kahl Story. I have Glenn Close signed up to play Kahl, and Sandra Bullock to play Catherine.

-- BarryGarelick - 22 Sep 2006

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Barry you are cracking me up! I love it!!!!

Golly, that casting is actually on the money if I do say so myself.

-- CatherineJohnson - 22 Sep 2006

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"They'll go after your child."

Isn't that awful?????

I've also been told they'll go after me.

Which of course makes it hard for us to read situations. The head of special ed has refused to return Ed's phone calls since last June; he's obviously been told not to talk to us.

Is this a case of "going after our kid"?

Or is this a case of more b*s on the special ed front?

Fortunately I'm the least paranoid person on the planet (I couldn't be writing a blooki if I weren't, that's for sure).

Ed's paranoia quotient is pretty minimal, too.

So basically at some point we don't really care why they're not returning calls; we're hiring a lawyer.

-- CatherineJohnson - 22 Sep 2006

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It gets trickier with Christopher, of course.

There are SOOOO many ways the school could mistreat him (the Honors course situation comes to mind, for instance).

When it comes to Christopher I've had to ask myself whether I know what I'm doing.

The answer is: I don't.

However, my best guess is that nobody is going to "go after my child."

To the degree that an individual within the district were to become unconsciously negative towards Christopher because of Ed's & my vocal expression of discontent, I suspect that would be balanced out by other individuals unconsciously deciding to handle Christopher with kid gloves.

But I don't know.

-- CatherineJohnson - 22 Sep 2006

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Ed said something amazing.

He said, "If people really do think the district would go after their children, that's all the more reason to protest bad policy."

-- CatherineJohnson - 22 Sep 2006

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My 92-year old father recently reminded me that when I was in high school, he'd gone in to complain to my principal about something and the principal had gotten out my permanent record and noted that I'd gotten some very high grade, something like 99 and one-half, in some course. And he told my father that such a high grade wasn't possible and he crossed out that one-half.

Un-effing-believable!!!!

oh yeah

That kind of pettiness is what I (thought) I saw with Ms. K, and it JUST MADE ME FURIOUS

However, now that I'm taking the borderline-autism business seriously....."finds subject matter difficult" is exactly the super-literal reading of a social situation an autistic-like person would make!

Christopher comes in for extra help more than any other child in all 3 of my classes

Therefore Christopher finds subject matter difficult.

A bordline-autistic person would be the last person on earth to recognize excessive extra help-seeking as a form of helicopter parenting & brown-nosing!

-- CatherineJohnson - 22 Sep 2006

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I was salutatorian-instead-of-valedictorian, too!

(I'll have to tell that story one of these days, if I already didn't.)

-- CatherineJohnson - 22 Sep 2006

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She likely wrote most of the obituary herself as she died at the age of 63 after fighting cancer for year. In any case, it included a brief history of her life starting with, "After graduating as valedictorian of her class at ... High School ...."

I'm doing fine, thank you.

Now you're scaring me.

Our class valedictorian was, basically, the "love of my life."

I put that in quotes because it feels so disloyal to Ed — and because I can't exactly use the words "first love"....which is veering into way more detail than is interesting to anyone at this point, including me.

His name was Bill.

One year ago he died of cancer. He had a wife and 3 fairly young kids.

I still feel sad about it.

I only saw him once in all of my adult life, at our high school reunion a few years ago, but I feel sad that he isn't here on Earth with the rest of us.

-- CatherineJohnson - 22 Sep 2006

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Mum always kept his hair very short, but when my brother was a teenager he decided to grow it on the theory that it would straighten out with enough weight on it like mine does. Of course, we told him it wouldn't before he started and it didn't. He just grew this great impermable mass of curls on his head.

But it had a wonderful upside. Girls would come up to him to ask "is your hair permed?", which meant they were making the first move in a conversation and he was away flirting.

I love it!

-- CatherineJohnson - 22 Sep 2006

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The number of up-sides to ludicrously bad personal decisions continues to stagger me.

-- CatherineJohnson - 22 Sep 2006

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Practically impossible, and you have to spend a H*LL of a lot of political capital to do it.

In the case of Mrs. Roth, we spent every bit of capital we had and then some. I'm not joking about that. Principal Fried hated us from that day on. ('Hate" is not too strong a word in his case; that wouldn't have been true for other administrators.)

-- CatherineJohnson - 22 Sep 2006

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People have gone JUST NUTS about people saying anything that might be remotely construed as racist. I just went through a bunch of HR interviewer training, and there was a lot of discussion of diversity; so much, in fact, that it made us all massively uncomfortable, especially since we had so much else to learn (such as what, by law, we are not even allowed to ask someone in an interview). You're supposed to not even notice that someone is different, unless of course it's possible that you might be unconsciously biased against them, in which case you must be acutely aware at all times that they are different and you might be unconsciously biased against them.

Temple would call it a 'sin of the system', like parking in a handicapped spot (something I once did, briefly, to my extreme sorrow).

oh, boy

I feel for you

I just WILL NOT have this

seriously

I'm paying WAY too much property tax to have my half-Jewish kid jumped on because he said "Jewfro" to a Jewish kid who also says "Jewfro" on a daily basis ESPECIALLY NOT WHEN BOTH OF THEM HAVE JEWFROS AND JEWFRO IS THE ONLY KNOWN WORD FOR THE KIND OF HAIR THEY HAVE

somebody give me a polite term for Jewfro and I will be happy to share it with Christopher

right now, I don't know of one

AND I'M NOT GOING TO WORRY ABOUT IT

they've got to teach content around there

end of story

enough with the 24/7 character education

-- CatherineJohnson - 22 Sep 2006

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THE OFFICE had a HILARIOUS episode on this issue last night. We were on the floor.

The boss (what the heck is his name?) has been using the word "faggie," I think, and the personnel guy finally tells him that one of the employees "is an actual homosexual" so then the boss outs the guy to the entire office and it just goes on and on

At one point, after he's been dressed down by the personnel guy AND "Pam," his immediate superior in the company, he tells the camera, "Apparently I have been chosen to eradicate 10,000 years of people feeling weird about homosexuality in one afternoon."

(something like that)

-- CatherineJohnson - 22 Sep 2006

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Something strange is going on--I was co-salutatorian too (when I should have been valdictorian). That decision came about because I transferred to my high school after my sophomore year, along with not being one of the old St. Louis money families who gave oodles of money to this private Catholic school. I was not one of the nuns' favorites.

And my dad still gets upset about it and the excuses the school gave about having trouble with transferring my grades from my old high school. It was 22 years ago, but he still gets worked up. I like to think I've moved on:)

-- KathyIggy - 22 Sep 2006

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Hey, my husband was salutatorian. (Twilight Music cue.)

Or so he says. Some days I just don't believe it.

-- SusanS - 22 Sep 2006

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Salutatorian synchronicity. I love it!

My first encounter with the real-world importance of this was freshman week at my college when they announced we were the best class ever and that 74 of the (IIRC) 500 of us had been the valedictorians of their high schools. I was waiting for them to say how many of us had been salutatorians but they didn't even bother.

-- SusanJ - 22 Sep 2006

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Hey Catherine, you might want to make sure your kid-friendly search engine doesn't return a pointer to the Urban Dictionary definition for "Jewfro"!

-- SusanJ - 22 Sep 2006

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Hi Catherine,

The year so far (end of third week)...exhausting....

Finished the baseline math testing, reading fluency testing, reading comprehension testing, and TOWL for the whole class. Only 28 so far this year. I am getting better at marking TOWL.

It's time to set up the SRA reading lab, multiple skills series, Step Up to Writing, the 6 Minute Solution (reading fluency) and create all the solutions for the math text book. In my free time I get to scan all the history and geography maps, etc. for my new SmartBoard^?.

-- SmartestTractor - 23 Sep 2006

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good grief

salutatorian synchronicity

-- CatherineJohnson - 23 Sep 2006

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uh-oh - I just looked at Urban Dictionary - is there something there I missed?

don't tell me

I don't want to know

-- CatherineJohnson - 23 Sep 2006

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Smartest

You guys are overworked.

Ed Wahoo had a post about the insane levels of paperwork teachers are doing on top of everything else - aaaauuuuggghhhhh

How do you like your Smart Board?

Scanning takes FOREVER.

-- CatherineJohnson - 23 Sep 2006

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Catherine,

If we worked smarter, I think some of the workload would disappear. The scanning task is a great example. With 3000 teachers in one board, one would think someone could scan the maps, etc. so monkeys like me could pull them into documents.

I am pretty good with the paper. If it isn't essential, i.e. going to directly help the students in the classroom, then it hides in the recycle bin.

Funny story about the school's scanner. It sat in the server room for two years in a box. I finally whined enough to the principal, so she let me take it to my room. I left a little sign on the box giving the technician directions to the scanners new, but temporary, home.

Smart Board - I really do not care for the Smart Board software. So, I unplugged the pen tray and the board acts as a huge monitor and the pen as your mouse. It is easier for the students to understand how it works when it works just like their machine at home. I have been using MS One Note with it. This allows me to archive everything we do. I can easily create a Acrobat file of anything we do. "Hey, you missed math class, so here are our notes." Using colour to connect steps in math and sentence parts in sentence composing is very helpful.

When it is not cooperating, I stand around looking like an idiot, trying not to curse, and mumbling something about how much chalk one could buy if we sold the Smart Board on eBay. The problem is not a Smart Board issue, but my eight-year old computer I hooked up to it. Replacing the hard drive has helped.

-- SmartestTractor - 24 Sep 2006

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Insane Synchronicity Batman!

I was salutatorian too!!!

-- EvilMathTeacher - 24 Sep 2006

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I make powerpoint presentations of the daily quizzes and then use the overhead to write out problems. I'd like to include the notes for the kids who are absent so I could put them on some kind of blog/wiki/blooki or email them to their parents.

Would a smartboard make this easier, or should I just write them out and then scan them in? I've already invested a ton of money this year in computer/software/scanner...what's the best configuration right now?

-- EvilMathTeacher - 24 Sep 2006

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Evil Math Teacher: Please don't end up doing all the students' work for them! All this "Interactive Notebook" and "Smartboard" stuff is fine for helping kids keep organized, and some amount of teacher notes is fine, but students are learning to rely on the teacher for providing notes, rather than learning how to listen and absorb. Is there a way that you can give the students less notes as the year goes on, so that at the end, they're taking more notes than you're giving them?

-- BarryGarelick - 24 Sep 2006

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I've been using SM for their notes. I'm going to start making blank sheets with the numbered problems that go along with the SM textbook.

I'll be projecting the textbook on the screen and then walk around to make sure they are copying the problems and doing the work for their notes.

The problem with 6th graders is that they go home and say that I didn't teach them how to do the problems and they don't have any notes.

It's infuriating for me so I'd like to be able to send the notes to their parents to "prove" that we actually DID something in class.

I agree with you completely! I'm afraid that if I send notes home then the kids will begin to rely on them.

I used to give NB quizzes where the kids searched their notes for the answers, but it only punished kids who really couldn't get organized, plus it wasted a day for teaching. Nice day for me though, because the kids were doing busywork.

-- EvilMathTeacher - 24 Sep 2006

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Evil Math Teacher, If you are reaching your peak of salary donations to your classroom, then have a class scribe write the notes. Photocopy and/or scan them and print the scan off in an Acrobat file using an application like CutePDF^?. Or, have your class scribe scan his/her note and create the pdf. Catherine is right, scanning is very time consuming.

If you use a class scribe, an idea stolen from the cool cat teacher blog, I do not think a Smart Board is going to save you much time.

I try to post everything as a pdf for ease of use for all involved. I think the largest file I have posted was 200k. If someone's internet is down, then I print the individual a colour copy.

A Smart Board does give you the ability to demostrate Geometer's Sketchpad, etc. in all its glory, but with a hefty price tag. You can accomplish the same thing with a beamer, an overhead screen, and a Graphire Tablet.

Attached below is the first page of what was on the Smart Board during a recent math lesson. I have been following Carol Gambill's method of teaching math. We do all the odd questions together in class and all the even questions are assigned for homework. A solution sheet is posted online and we have a quiz the following day.

If you are interested in Smart Boards, the check out http://www.smarterkids.org/index.asp. They have changed their grant program, unfortunately.

-- SmartestTractor - 24 Sep 2006

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Smart Boards are potentially a great tool when there are visually-impaired or blind kids in a class. I think it will take time to figure out how best to use them.

Remember when answering machines first came out and we made fun of them? Now, we often hope someone's machine answers so we can quickly leave a message. My guess is that once we get used to Smart Boards we'll wonder how we got along without them.

BTW, Infty is the only software I know of that can do OCR on math. It's even got a handwriting interface although last time I tried it wasn't perfect; however, it's getting there.

http://www.inftyproject.org/en/index.html

-- SusanJ - 24 Sep 2006

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Evil Teacher: Using SM for the notes is great, because what they're doing is reading the textbook. And since SM isn't big on narrative explanations, they HAVE to pay attention to what's going on.

-- BarryGarelick - 25 Sep 2006

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I have to say, I'd never heard the term JEWFRO before.

-- GoogleMaster - 25 Sep 2006

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I'll be projecting the textbook on the screen and then walk around to make sure they are copying the problems and doing the work for their notes.

The problem with 6th graders is that they go home and say that I didn't teach them how to do the problems and they don't have any notes.

It's infuriating for me so I'd like to be able to send the notes to their parents to "prove" that we actually DID something in class.

I think that's a great example at this age.

Christopher tells me Ms. K hasn't taught concepts and while I'm inclined to believe him (especially since Ms. K herself told my friend Kris she wasn't teaching concepts before assigning homework on them) it would be a very good thing for all of us if Ed and I had an idea what was being taught in class.

-- CatherineJohnson - 26 Sep 2006

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The class scribe idea is neat.

That way you're giving kids some practice transcribing notes - and at this point I think transcribing notes is what they need to learn, probably.

Rudbeckia is always trying to get her students NOT to transcribe the notes, but they're college kids.

Kids this age just have no idea what to omit.

-- CatherineJohnson - 26 Sep 2006

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Google Master

Live and learn!

-- CatherineJohnson - 26 Sep 2006

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Actually I'm not sure I'd heard "Jewfro" myself & Ed definitely hadn't heard it.

We are WAY too old.

I've been calling it "Jafro" for - oh, maybe 20 years now.

-- CatherineJohnson - 26 Sep 2006

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I used to give NB quizzes where the kids searched their notes for the answers, but it only punished kids who really couldn't get organized, plus it wasted a day for teaching. Nice day for me though, because the kids were doing busywork.

GOOD FOR YOU!

That's the kind of thing I LOVE to hear from people on the frontlines (i.e. teachers).

All kinds of things, in every walk of life, seem like great ideas in theory.

But if they don't work in practice, IT'S TIME TO THINK OF SOMETHING ELSE.

This is one thing I can't abide about edu-theory.

You read edu-texts and they're pure theory & ideology.

You can go through pages & pages of text without encountering a word about how some concept actually works inside a real classroom with real children.

CHARACTER ED BEING A GLARING EXAMPLE, BTW

-- CatherineJohnson - 26 Sep 2006

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e.g. can you really teach good character by purchasing Character dog tags?

-- CatherineJohnson - 26 Sep 2006

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I'm guessing no.

-- CatherineJohnson - 26 Sep 2006

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I'm guessing no.

-- CatherineJohnson - 26 Sep 2006

WebLogForm
Title:	news from nowhere part 22 Year Two
TopicType:	WebLog
SubjectArea:	IrvingtonMath, IrvingtonSchools
LogDate:	200609201356

Attachment	Action	Size	Date	Who	Comment
OneNoteSmartBoardExample.pdf	manage	70.1 K	24 Sep 2006 - 19:56	SmartestTractor	SmartBoard? using OneNote?