March 31, 2008 in Darndest Things
Tags: adolescents, athlete, C, class, eligibility, F, failing, give me, grades, hooky, quarter, show, student, student teacher, studious, teenagers, that's not fair, up
Quarter grades were due Friday. These grades determine, in part, eligibility for fall sports tryouts; more than a few students entered a sort of panicked-but-attempting-studious mode.
One of my newer students is fresh from the Deep South and is, I suppose, quite the would-be athlete. Though he enrolled a few weeks ago, I don’t know him that well. [...]
March 30, 2008 in The Way It Were
Tags: better, bottles, break, cancer, cred, from, healthy, master, non-carcinogenic, plastic, refill, spring, street, student, tapatio, teacher, teaching, water
It was the first day back from spring break, and I was in need of a new water bottle. I drink water, and quite a lot of it through the school day. Though I’m told drinking too much water could be a sign of early onset diabetes — not to mention family history two generations [...]
March 29, 2008 in Personal Reflection
Tags: aren't, bad, checklist, coaches, creativity, evil, frustrating, gulag, help, history, impose, lucky, oligarchy, standards, stars, state, stifle, stop, student, student teacher, teachers
Hang out in the staff lounge in some California school. Eventually, you’ll hear something like this:
Standards stifle teacher creativity. Standards are unachievable. Standards impose an oligarch’s curriculum on all of us. Standards must be stopped.
I used to accept that out of hand. Who was I to argue? I had never planned a lesson or directed [...]
