Memories

This past week on the show, we had the pleasure of welcoming two gentlemen who were planning a reunion. This reunion was of a different sort, it wasn't a class reunion, but a school reunion. It is amazing, the bonds that we form as school mates, even if we were there at different points in history. When you think of it, we spend more waking hours with our teachers and classmates than we do our biological family. We go through good times, bad times, laughs, tears, and fears with these people who just a few years ago were strangers. Total strangers, yet placed together and form bonds that stand the test of time.

These two pictures started a chain reaction, one person sharing these pictures that they found caused many to get together to think and share memories of happy times gone by. As educators, let's do our part so that when our young scholars look back, 5, 10, 20, or even 30 plus years, they can remember the impact that you made o their lives!! Be encouraged, you are making a difference in someone's life.

BEC vs the BHB

The Talking Teacher was perusing the newspaper today, the Royal Gazette, and came across this article-Jennifer Attride-Stirling named CEO of Health Council . Bermuda Health Council, "Hmmmm, we now have a Bermuda Educator's Council, so let me read this and see what this article is about", thought the Talking Teacher. So, The Talking Teacher began to read and noted certain things about this newly appointed person-

1.Dr. Attride-Stirling has been credited with introducing the National Child Health Record initiative, along with the Healthy Schools programme, the Public Health Awards and Bermuda's first national health promotion strategy, called Well Bermuda.

2. Since joining the Council last December, she has produced its first strategic plan and oversaw the redesign of the organisation's website.

3. Before coming to the Department of Health, she was a Development Manager at the Commission for Health Improvement, the regulatory body for the National Health Service in England and Wales.

4. During her career, Dr. Attride-Stirling has written and published several papers in international, peer-reviewed journals and books on subjects including health regulation, health promotion, mental health and research methodology.

5. She earned her doctorate at the London School of Economics, and last year she received an Executive Diploma in Strategic Management from the Chartered Management Institute in the UK.

Wow!! Such credentials, The Talking Teacher must commend and congratulate Dr. Attride-Sterling for this step in her career.

The Talking Teacher is sure that there was much thought and careful consideration that went into choosing the Dr. for this post. A Dr. leading the Health Council, hmmm, I am sure that a Dr. Leading the Health Council was a no-brainer, no need to even explain why not, but please indulge me... The terminology, the mind-set, the way of life, the small innuendos that only Dr's. would understand would help her to make stellar decisions that would greatly benefit their council. This body seems ready to take their members professionally forward and prepared to meet any challenges that may come up in their way. Well done.


Then the Talking Teacher considered the Bermuda Educators council.....hmmmmm......ummm......errrrrrrrr......what a contrast!!

Step into technology-challenge yourself then let your students fly.....

I know I said that I was going to take a little break for the summer, but , the Talking Teacher, being the consummate learner has stumbled upon a video that he must share. I challenge you to go out on a limb this summer and broaden your horizons. Adopt some new skills, there is a lot of internet techie stuff out there, push yourself, then in September go back and push your students. Check the video:







New Classroom Rules (as taken from Education Innovation )

1. Come to school every day, unless you would rather just go on line.

2. Come to class on time, or log into your online class anytime day or night, whenever it is most convenient to you.

3. Leave your seat only when necessary, which should be often to go collaborate with others or demonstrate something to the class.

4. Bring required materials, including your laptop and cell phone every day.

5. Talk only when permitted, text at all other times.

6. Don't Talk to your neighbors, unless you are sharing your ideas, asking for help or giving help.

7. Use polite speech when speaking, blogging, texting, Twittering, instant messaging, etc.

8. Do not cheat, but remix, re-purpose, and sample other peoples’ work and ideas and give them credit.

9. Follow the teacher's directions immediately and your peers’ directions too.

10. Be polite, courteous, and respectful at all times in both physical and virtual space.

11. Complete all assignments neatly and on time and submit on line or post to your blog or wiki, and share it with your followers on Twitter.

12. Keep your hands to yourself, but share all your ideas and knowledge with others in your Personal Learning Network.

13. Be quiet in lines, hallways, and restrooms, unless you are at home and logged into your on line classroom, in which case you can dance and play music.

14. If you need help raise your hand, but don’t wait for the teacher get help from your neighbors and post your question to your online Personal Learning Network.

15. Know what you are supposed to be learning, why, and what you will do with the knowledge.

Whew, made it to the end of the school year...

The end of the school year usually hits the Talking Teacher with mixed feelings. I can't get over the fact that the year is done, there are things that you wanted to try and didn't get a chance to do, there are students that you may never see again, there is an emptiness when you stand there and watch the last student walk away...


Teaching is a most noble profession, and I love being in the clasroom, but the Talking Teacher wonders why many get it all twisted. I don't watch NASCAR, but, I understand the fans tune in to see the driver negotiate his way around a track at speeds that glue the driver to the seat of the finely tuned car. People don't tune in to watch the guy who changes the tire, nor the guy who put gas in the tank, or even the main track coach who wears the headphones and keeps in constant contact with the driver. Nope, people don't tune in to see them. Now don't get me wrong, they are important, they have a role to play. BUT the main person is the driver and his car.

The Talking Teacher feels that education has become a bit twisted. Many of us tend to think that the classroom is not the place to be and one needs to strive for "upward mobility" , and those that do have drive, show initiative and are clicked on. Interesting, when I went to school, I went to study education, to become a teacher, to be in the class. I LOVE being in the class. Does my not wanting to be a mentor or some departmental official mean that I have no drive or initiative?

The class is where it is at!! The class is the main event, everything else, everyone else is playing second fiddle, everyone else is support staff...the PIT CREW!!! The teacher and the class can be likened to the driver and the car, they are what makes the difference, the class is where the magic happens, the class is the best place to be, everyone else, mentor, principal, departmental people, directors, you are support staff, you ensure that the teacher has what they need to keep going. Just as the driver and car cannot be a success without the pit crew, we cannot be a success without your support.

Why is it then that many strive for these positions, and please do not get the Talking Teacher wrong, but many think that positions are where it is at. The funny thing is that when they are given these positions, for some strange reason, they do not even play their pit crew role well, I am not betting that when the NASCAR pulls in, the tire changer says," You need to fill out this form, even though you have filled it out every year for the past x years and nothing has changed, fill it out and then we'll see if we can get some tires for you..." Never will you hear that. NEVER!! So why is it that we treat the teacher and the class that way?!?!?! I don't understand...or maybe I do, maybe it is our view of the class and the teacher. When the funk hits the fan, who is the first to get the blame? THE TEACHER!! When things go well, who is the first to get the praise? The principal!! cheesh......


So my good people, after seeing people who have no skills , sorry, I lie, people who have butt kissing skills get position after position and who offer no more information then the snake oil salesman of the wild wild west. Who strove for position, for mere name dropping sake or to feel "important" or because being in the class in underneath them, "me be in the class? Do they know who I am and what I have done? " I say unto you this day-the class and the teacher is the most important part of this whole operation. Don't get it twisted, the classroom is WHERE ITS AT!!!!


This is going to be my last post for a while, going to take a break from it all, change gears, switch mind set, recharge my batteries so that I can be ready for September. To all my teachers, my fellow colleagues out there in the trenches- have a great summer- enjoy it-let you batteries recharge!!!!


PEACE-The TALKING TEACHER IS OUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Should abilities be mixed?

The talking teacher was in a meeting just last week where a teacher was complaining about their students and how most were "so not motivated". They went on to say that if they were able to split the students up in ability grouping, high fliers, lower, medium etc., she would be able to cover more ground with the high fliers and then she would be able to better differentiate? WELL WHAT?!?!?!? Differentiation should be taking place in EVERY CLASS, and for EVERY ABILITY. I could go on about how if you go to a restaurant, be it Italian or island cuisine, you won't get one thing on the menu, or, if you turn on your t.v., there is one show on many channels, no, you have a choice, teach that way. Yes, it is challenging, and calls for much planning, but it PAYS!!!! Here is an article that backs my view.

So in an unusual experiment, Cloonan mixed up its sixth-grade science and social studies classes last month, combining zeros and ones with twos. These mixed-ability classes have reported fewer behavior problems and better grades for struggling students, but have also drawn complaints of boredom from some high-performing students who say they are not learning as much.

The results illustrate the challenge facing this 15,000-student district just outside New York City, which is among the last bastions of rigid educational tracking more than a decade after most school districts abandoned the practice. In the 1960s and early 1970s, Stamford sorted students into as many as 15 different levels; the current system of three to five levels at each of four middle schools will be replaced this fall by a two-tiered model, in which the top quarter of sixth graders will be enrolled in honors classes, the rest in college-prep classes. (A fifth middle school is a magnet school and has no tracking.)

More than 300 Stamford parents have signed a petition opposing the shift, and some say they are now considering moving or switching their children to private schools. “I think this is a terrible system for our community,” said Nicole Zussman, a mother of two.

Ms. Zussman and others contend that Stamford’s diversity, with poor urban neighborhoods and wealthy suburban enclaves, demands multiple academic tracks, and suggest that the district could make the system fairer and more flexible by testing students more frequently for movement among the levels.

But Joshua P. Starr, the Stamford superintendent, said the tracking system has failed to prepare children in the lower levels for high school and college. “There are certainly people who want to maintain the status quo because some people have benefited from the status quo,” he said. “I know that we cannot afford that anymore. It’s not fair to too many kids.”

Educators have debated for decades how to best divide students into classes. Some school districts focus on providing extra instruction to low achievers or developing so-called gifted programs for the brightest students, but few maintain tracking like Stamford’s middle schools (tracking is less comprehensive and rigid at the town’s elementary and high schools).

Deborah Kasak, executive director of the National Forum to Accelerate Middle Grades Reform, said research is showing that all students benefit from mixed-ability classes. “We see improvements in student behavior, academic performance and teaching, and all that positively affects school culture,” she said.

Daria Hall, a director with Education Trust, an advocacy group, said that tracking has worsened the situation by funneling poor and minority students into “low-level and watered-down courses.” “If all we expect of students is for them to watch movies and fill out worksheets, then that’s what they will give us,” she said.

Click here for the rest of the article from the New York Times.


Teachers, raise your standards, let's get a better mental view of our young scholars!!! Challenge them, raise the bar, they will rise to the occasion!!

At Last, Facing Down Bullies (and Their Enablers)

Interesting read from the Ney York Times:

In recent years, pediatricians and researchers in this country have been giving bullies and their victims the attention they have long deserved — and have long received in Europe. We’ve gotten past the “kids will be kids” notion that bullying is a normal part of childhood or the prelude to a successful life strategy. Research has described long-term risks — not just to victims, who may be more likely than their peers to experience depression and suicidal thoughts, but to the bullies themselves, who are less likely to finish school or hold down a job.

Next month, the American Academy of Pediatrics will publish the new version of an official policy statement on the pediatrician’s role in preventing youth violence. For the first time, it will have a section on bullying — including a recommendation that schools adopt a prevention model developed by Dan Olweus, a research professor of psychology at the University of Bergen, Norway, who first began studying the phenomenon of school bullying in Scandinavia in the 1970s. The programs, he said, “work at the school level and the classroom level and at the individual level; they combine preventive programs and directly addressing children who are involved or identified as bullies or victims or both.”

Click here for the rest.

Graphic Novels

The Talking Teacher is always trying to think outside of the box, and I'm sure, like most of his colleagues, is always thinking of ways to get his students actively engaged in the learning process. So, this year, Graphic Novels were introduced into the class. THE STUDENTS LOVED THEM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The first was a book called "Ghost" followed by "American Born Chinese" and a few more. I must say, the students ate them up!!! Many are reluctant to try graphic novels in the class and sadly, don't even see them as a viable learning tool, dismissing them as simple "comic books". Sad......

Take a look at this article:
When Art Spiegelman won the Pulitzer Prize for Maus in 1992, graphic novels began to shed their stigma as a childish, escapist genre. Recently, Gene Yang’s American Born Chinese, a narrative weaving the ancient Monkey King fable with contemporary Chinese-American tales, was the first graphic novel nominated for a National Book Award.

“Graphic novels entice students to read because they think of them in the same way they think of video games. Visuals enable students to comprehend and infer from the text,” says sixth grade teacher Donna Kasprowicz, who integrates Yang’s work into her curriculum. Click here to read the rest.