Evolving Education

Sorry

2006-12-15T04:35:00.000-08:00

It would seem that I don't quite have the time/motivation/whatever to keep this whole thing up and running right now.

Sorry.

Frustration

2006-11-30T18:59:00.000-08:00

I know that I continue to neglect this blog. I think I just need to work back into posting.

Life around here has been very frustrating lately. We live in a city that is constantly promising new and exciting things are just around the corner. When we first moved here there was a great deal of discussion regarding a rail system connecting parts of the triangle. A year and a half later, the plans seem to have fallen apart. Also, there seems to be big plans to revive downtown and turn it into a place people want to be. A year and a half later everything is still completely torn up and I am not aware of any new businesses moving in.

Despite all that, we have found some places here that we enjoy hanging out. Places were we can sit outside and have some coffee or a beer (depending on the time of day) and enjoy ourselves. Two of our favorites have been Joe & Jo's, a small restaurant/bar that specialized in friendly attitudes, and Fowler's, a deli/market coffee shop that is a great place to bring a book, drink some quality coffee and listen to nice live music. Within the last week both have closed without warning. Although Joe & Jo's is only five years old or so, Fowler's had been in business for over 80 years.

I don't really know how to replace these two spots. A city that has constantly claimed to be expanding seems to be closing down around us. If we had not just purchased a house over the summer, I would be very temped to look into moving.

Back

2006-11-27T19:23:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving is over and I can finally get back to posting again. Hopefully anyone who actually read this before is still around.

Over the long weekend we traveled out west to visit my parents. I was away from the internet and television for most of the time and I hope I didn't miss out onanything too important in the world. I am more than caught up on the world of Denver Broncos football, however.

Now just a few more weeks until our next break.

Tomorrow I should have something to say about the recent NSTA activity...

(it is good to be back)

Holiday

2006-11-21T12:39:00.000-08:00

Now that the pile of papers has been cleared out, the Thanksgiving holiday is upon us. I feel bad for neglecting this for as long as I have, but I will be leaving town tomorrow so I can't exactly pick back up now.

My next post will be Monday. I will be back to regular posting then. Promise.

A pile of papers

2006-11-15T18:26:00.000-08:00

I have neglected this spot for a few days... and it might be a couple more. I have spent the better part of this week in grading hell. There is a light at the end of the tunnel, but I have a lot of papers to get through first...

I will be back soon.

The real me

2006-11-12T18:54:00.000-08:00

Over the weekend I had a conversation with a fellow teacher about the battles we are always fighting with students about classroom rules and procedures. There are certain rules that we choose to enforce in our classrooms (such as specific procedures for turning in homework) and certain rules that are set by the administration that we all have to enforce (such as the fact that gum is not allowed). One of the most common complaints is that we do not allow students to do things that they are allowed to do elsewhere ("I can chew gum at home!"). My colleague and I discovered that we both always start the year with a conversation about the fact that the classroom is a professional environment and they should act as such. When I tell them that there are certain words that are not appropriate in the classroom, it doesn't mean I don't expect them to never use them, just that I don't want them to use them in my classroom. I explain that I am not the same person when I am at home that I am when I am teaching, because they are not the same type of environments. This always elicits a slew of questions about what I am like when I am not teaching ("Do you wear shorts?", "Do you swear?", etc.). So, here is a short comparison of the "teaching me" and the "real me":

Attire -
TM: Button-up collared shirt and slacks. I wear ties very occasionally.
RM: T-shirt and shorts. I wear my sandals until as late into the year as possible.

Skin -
TM: My clothes come across as pretty conservative and don't show anything unusual.
RM: Large tattoos around my wrists are most always visible, tattoo on my upper arm is occasionally visible, tattoo on my leg is visible when I wear shorts. Other tattoos are rarely visible in public.

Humor -
TM: I joke occasionally, but I think my students view me as pretty straight.
RM: Very sarcastic. Most of the jokes I make would not be appropriate in class.

Politics -
TM: I discuss politics rarely, though sometimes it is relevant. I try to play the role of devil's advocate, pointing out the counter-arguments to those my students post. Since most of my students come from Democratic families and many students think that I must believe any argument I put forth, there is often an assumption that I am pretty conservative.
RM: I am very liberal politically and rarely hide it. I am not as politically active as I would like, but I am working on it. If asked by a student, I will not hide or lie about my views.

Age -
TM: Students always ask about my age, and I never give a direct answer. It isn't because I don't want them to know, but because I enjoy the process of them trying to figure it out.
RM: I don't mind telling anyone who asks that I am 27.

More to come later, but the laundry is done...

Quick Notes

2006-11-10T12:12:00.000-08:00

Few quick things today:

There is an interesting conversation over at the RA forums with Sam Harris, author of Letters to a Christian Nation.

I recommend all teachers and potential teachers in North Carolina to check out the North Carolina Model Teacher Education Consortium, an organization whose mission statement describes themselves as:

"... a collaborative partnership which provides affordable, accessible, high-quality education/training to aspiring and practicing educators in participating school systems in North Carolina. This partnership will increase the quantity of highly qualified educators in the school systems. The Consortium is committed to increasing the number of minority educators within the service area."

Starting in January I will be in a graduate program through Duke University to get my AIG license add on. The NCMTEC will be paying for the entire program (I don't know what they cost, but four graduate course at Duke cannot be cheap), all of my books and even Duke's $75 dollar application fee. Also, there is a possibility I will get a stipend from them for the summer coursework. The only money I will ever spend for this is $40 for transcripts.

Finally, I suggest the Durham Art Walk to anyone in the triangle with some free time this weekend. We go every time and have always enjoyed the chance to be outside, get some exercise, and see some interesting artwork.

Senator Webb and Senator Tester

2006-11-08T16:47:00.000-08:00

Watching the election results last night was much more enjoyable than watching the returns two years ago. It is reassuring to see that so many Americans have come to their senses and realized that lies, corruption and bigotry do not deserve our vote (too bad it took the loss of so many lives in Iraq to bring this message home). The Democrats have taken the House and now it looks like they have taken the Senate as well. About the only frustration last night was listening to the Repug's talking heads on CNN talk about Santorum (after his loss) as a "champion of the poor" and a "great and kind soul." Just typing those words makes me feel slightly ill.

This morning I was wokring out this post in my head. I was going to write about the fight ahead. The Senate power was still up for grabs, with Montana and Virginia too close to call. Nobody was going to give it up easily. In both states in appeared that the Democratic challenger had the most votes, but it was close enough that recounts could be in order. I was going to implore the Democrats to come out strong. They need to declare their two candidates, Webb and Tester, winners and refuse to refer to them as anything other than Senator-elect from this point forward. If the elections ends up in the hands of state legislature, which is a likely outcome from any recount, public perception is a powerful tool. The Democrats need to make it appear that they clearly won and the Repugs are just trying to steal their victories. In 2000 G.W. Bush had the power of public opinion on his side. The Democrats cannot let that repeat itself here.

Now, however, that all might not be necessary. CNN has called Tester (Senator-elect Tester, that is) as the winner in Montana and, although it does not appear to be official, he has a big enough lead to preclude any recount. Senator-elect Webb is holding a few thousand vote lead in Virginia, which is likely to withstand any recount. Although it may be a while until everything there is official, Allen would have to wait until at least November 27th to request a recount, there are now rumors that Allen may not even pursue a challenge. Given the focus it would draw to the vote there and the charges of improper election activity, it might be smarter for the Repugs to just call this one a loss and let it go.

The only thing that gives me any reason to pause for concern is Lieberman's victory in CT. It was certainly not a surprise, but the close balance in the Senate gives Lieberman too much power. He has every reason to be upset at the party that threw him under the bus during the primary. He claims that he will vote as he is a Democrat, but I am not sure I believe him. He is smart enough not to officially change parties and become a Repug (right now he may be a powerful swing vote on many issues, not just another party member voting on party lines), but I would not be surprised if switching sides is looking more and more attractive these days.

I think the conventional wisdom is for the Democrats to try to mend wounds with Lieberman and woo him back to their side. I don't know if he will fall for that. I think the key here is whether or not he has plans to run again in six years. If he wants to continue in the Senate beyond this term, he cannot afford to slide very far to the right. The voters of CT are not likely to re-elect him if he becomes a Repug in everything but name. However, if re-election is not an issue, he gains a lot more freedom. I think the Democrats would be best served to actively try to marginalize him. He seems to enjoy the spotlight and power (what politician doesn't?), and if he can be pushed out of the spotlight he might fade away a bit.

Wishful thinking, I know. Everything else went right yesterday, so why not one more?

Vote!

2006-11-07T13:30:00.000-08:00

I just returned from casting my first vote here in North Carolina. It was much more satisfying to fill out a paper ballot, not just press buttons on a computer. The weather, rainy and cold, reminds me of my last voting experience back in Ohio (I didn't have to stand in line outside for three hours this time around). I certainly hope the results don't also remind me of my last voting experience.

Have you voted yet?

Ken Miller

2006-11-06T20:05:00.000-08:00

We just got back from hearing an interesting lecture by Ken Miller at N.C. State University. Unfortunately, the fact that I have to be up before dawn tomorrow forced us to leave before the panel discussion with Mr. Miller and local clergy and turn down an offer from Bora to get a beer afterwards (though it was nice to run into him again, even if it was quick and a bit hurried). It was an interesting, insightful and often amusing talk. It is not often I see a lecture that includes video of the speaker's appearance on The Colbert Report. He started with a discussion of the current state of the battle to get Intelligent Design in the classroom, specifically focused on his experience testifying in the Dover, PA case. Although I knew a lot of the details, Dr. Miller provided an interesting view of the proceedings and some of the details (specifically regarding the early editions of Of Pandas and People). Dr. Miller followed this with some brief explanations of the faults and flaws in the ID's attacks on evolution. Again, I had heard the details before, but Dr. Miller's added insight made it worth listening to.

Dr. Miller finished by discussing the implications that evolution (and the failure of ID) has for people of faith, such as himself. He takes the position, opposite of those such as Richard Dawkins, that religion is not at odds with evolution and the two can coexist quite easily. I found myself feeling very conflicted listening to his words. I was raised in a Jewish family (not a surprise to anyone that knows my first and last name), but I consider myself a strong atheist today. I agree with Richard Dawkins and the view that a belief in god is misguided at best and complete ignorance at worst. However, I am also concerned with the public acceptance of science in general and evolution specifically. Although I agree with Dawkins' points, I think his methods are just as like to offend and upset as they are to actually convince anyone. I think that Miller and his approach is probably a lot more likely to ease the tension between the anti-evolution groups and the anti-religion groups.

So, do I support Miller's ideas, which I do not really believe, because they are more likely to avoid conflict and reduce tensions? For a long, I think the answer would have been yes. However, within the last year, I have been more and more outgoing and vocal about my atheism. So, I think that today I have to stand with Dr. Dawkins on this one.

Make the turtle draw (Part 2)

2006-11-06T19:24:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I rambled on about how the use of computers in the classroom has changed in the last few decades. A paper published in 1971 described twenty ways that computers could be involved in the classroom, and pretty much all of them focused on students learning about computer programming. Today computers used in the classroom are designed as tools to aid education, not as something to be studied. Although I would have to do the research to find out for sure, I wouldn't be surprised to learn that there is a greater market for computer programmers and computer scientists today than there was back in the 1970's. If this is the case, why do we not teach computer programming at the primary school level anymore? Honestly, I don't have a good answer. Perhaps it is because programming has become advanced enough that educators do not feel that school children would be able to understand the basics (though, given how often I hear my students talk about changing they myspace page around, I think they could grasp basic computer programming). Anyone else have any thoughts on this issue?

The other question my post yesterday brought to my mind is one of potential. Do we currently use computer to their educational potential? Many of the people I work with seem to think that we do. I have been to countless meetings extolling the wonderful things we are doing with computers these days. We use the internet for student research. We use computers and LCD projectors to show streaming instructional videos. We use computers to take and grade tests. I am struck by the fact, however, that none of these things really change what teachers have been doing, just how efficiently they are doing it. Students can go to the library and look up information in books, just as they can look it up on-line. Students can watch videos on a television just like they can on-line. Students can take tests on paper and get some slightly delayed feedback just like they can take tests on-line and get immediate feedback. For that matter, students can type papers on Word just like they can write them out by hand. In other words, a majority of the ways I see teachers using computers in the classroom are designed to make the same old techniques and devices faster and more efficient.

I think the future of computers in the classroom lies in the areas that make computers unique. I am not a computer scientist or even a computer hobbyist, so I don't pretend to fully understand all of the possibilities. However, one example of computers starting to be put to good use is that of simulations. Last week I used a simple on-line simulation of water pollution. Students could control the input of pollution into a stream, as well as the distance from the source and examine what was (and was not) able to survive. There are also quality simulations for evolution, disease growth and transmission, geologic history and other topics out there. Students can see a dynamic side of the topics they are currently studying out of textbooks.

Another possible use of computers in the classroom is to create an interactive community. I have seen this used more and more at the college level, but it seems to be gaining favor slowly at the lower levels. Through message boards, blogs, or similar sites, students and teachers can dialog with each other and outsiders about many different topics (both academic and otherwise). I do understand that many people are hesitant to involve children in on-line conversations given the safety issues involved, though there are those working to create safe places for students to engage in active dialogs (Gaggle.net is a good example).

What other ways can we expand the uses for computers in the classroom? I look forward to finding out.

Make the turtle draw (Part 1)

2006-11-05T07:49:00.000-08:00

Found an interesting article over at The Pulse today. The question they ask there points back to a paper published in 1971 with twenty suggestions for what can be done with computers in the classroom (you can download a PDF of the paper here). The paper is fairly long (41 pages), but it can be cut down to a fairly simple list of suggested activities (for the sake of clarity, I have added a few notes in parentheses):

1. Make a turtle (a turtle is a small computer controlled drawing machine)
2. Program the turtle to draw a man
3. Turtle biology (practice with basic programming)
4. Make a display turtle
5. Place Spacewar (a game where players fight as spaceships)
6. Differential geometry (drawings)
7. Draw Spirals
8. Have a heart - and learn to debug
9. Grow flowers (more drawing)
10. Make a movie (of flower drawings)
11. Make a music box and program a tune
12. Play with semi-random musical effects and then try serious composing
13. Computerize an erector set crane and build a tower of blocks
14. Make a super lights show (essentially programming lights like on a billboard)
15. Write concrete poetry (programming random word generator)
16. Try C.A.I. and psychology (programming simple A.I.)
17. Physics in the fingertips (programming a computer-controlled physics experiment)
18. Explain yourself (ask students to make #17 more realistic)
19. Puppets (program computers to control a puppet show)
20. Recursion line (come up with more uses for computer)

How is this list of suggestions similar to what we do with computers in the classroom today? As far as I can tell, they are hardly related at all. This list focuses almost entirely on computer programming. I did some computer programming myself back in elementary school (I do fondly remember making that computerized turtle draw pictures), but it has mostly been eliminated from primary school curriculum. Why? What has changed in the last 30 years regarding computers in the classroom? The internet joined the classroom.

In my school, most every time a teacher gets out the computers for student use, it is to access the internet. Personally, I use the internet both for student research (my students have to write a few research papers during the year, and I give them some prep time in class) and to run some internet-based simulations (we recently ran a pollution simulation from SAS inSchool). Although computer programming is a huge industry these days, most students don't really get introduced to the idea until much later in their educational life. Today, computers are considered to be more a tool for learning (a source of information) and less of something as a subject to be learned about. The authors of the 1971 paper were concerned with teaching their students about computers, not about using computers to teach other subjects.

So, do we use computers to their full potential? The authors of the 1971 paper certainly thought that they were. Many of the administrators and teachers I work with today think that we are. I am not so sure. I think there is a lot of potential there left to reach. I am often frustrated with the idea that doing what teachers have always done using technology is automatically an improvement. When I have students use computers to research an ocean animal for a report they are going to write, it is convenient, but not really any different than walking them to the library and having them look up the information in books. Even worse, in my opinion, is when we "update" poor teaching techniques by throwing in some technology. For example, my district pays a site license for United Streaming, a site of streaming educational videos. Many of these videos are well done and worthwhile, and many are old and outdated. My administration tells us that putting in a videocassette in a VCR is not active and engaging teaching. Yet, they tell us over and over to use Untied Streaming. How is it more engaging teaching to use a laptop and LCD projector to show the exact same video I could show with a VCR and television?

There are a lot of teachers and administrators out there that need to understand that, from an educational point of view, not all technology is equal. Just because we use computers in our classes on a regular basis does not mean we are using it to our fullest potential.

Tomorrow I will continue with my toughts on the untapped uses for computers in the classroom.

Not being insightful

2006-11-04T14:26:00.000-08:00

It feels like it has been a while since I have made a really worthwhile post here, but it is tough to come up with much insight on an afternoon being spent playing this game and reading the forums at the new Raving Atheists site instead of the grading I should be.

Actually, I should be able to gather some insight from the RA forums. Maybe I will sleep on it tonight and post my thoughts on the place tomorrow.

NaNoWriMo

2006-11-02T13:32:00.000-08:00

November is NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). I have never tried to write a novel and I don't think I ever could (much less in a single month). I can put out words on this blog on a pretty regular basis, but the idea of actually putting together a plot, with characters, development, all that jazz? Not my area. I have a lot of admiration for those that even attempt NaNoWriMo, much less actually complete a novel in a single month. I am always impressed by those people who can do what I cannot.

My question, however, is why November? If I was going to put together something like a novel, I think I would have to commit to writing every single day. Problem is that there is no way I would have the time to write over the Thanksgiving weekend. September, I could write every day. August? No problem. January, February? Easy. I don't think I could swing November, though.

Bonus!

2006-11-01T19:42:00.000-08:00

Yesterday our principal announced that there would be a special faculty meeting right after school. Our faculty meetings are very strictly scheduled and I can't remember another unscheduled meeting in my time here. Unsurprisingly, there was a lot of speculation about what could be so important as to warrant this. We haven't formally been introduced to our new assistant principal, but we decided that wouldn't be worth the time. The general consensus was that there was some problem that needed to be addressed immediately.

As it turns out, the meeting was to announce that we had met our ABC levels. For the non-local reader, that is the North Carolina standards in terms of test scores. It turns out we had shown significant growth last year. Although it is always nice to know that our students are improving and testing well, I was a bit surprised by the uproar of cheers from the faculty. All made sense, however, when I learned that this growth is accompanied by a bonus check (either $750 or $1500, depending on the amount of growth) for all faculty. No wonder everyone was so excited.

Extra money is hardly something I would complain about, but I couldn't help but be struck by the fact that the same people cheering out loud are those that, not too long ago were complaining about the plan in Houston in which teacher pay is tied to student performance. Personally I disagree with such a plan. I don't think it is unfair to hold teachers accountable for student performance on some level, but I don't think controlling pay is the best way to do it. Most of the teachers I know tend to agree with me.

It is amazing how quickly people are willing to change there view when they are the ones getting extra money. I wonder how many of them will still oppose the program in Houston after this. Of course, I am hardly one to talk. I will be cashing my check right along with everyone else.

Quick Note

2006-10-31T14:47:00.000-08:00

Things have been very busy the last couple of days and I haven't gotten much time on here. However, I wanted to drop by and mention that I am not looking forward to tomorrow, a day in which all of my students will be hopped up on sugar all day long...

Still no trick or treaters at our place, though.

The Tar Heel Tavern (Edition #88)

2006-10-29T08:22:00.000-08:00

The #88 edition of The Tar Heel Tavern is here. Having never put together a carnival before, I was not really sure what to expect of the experience. Mostly, I was just worried that no one would bother to submit anything. Thankfully, the emails rolled in and were a lot of fun to read and sort through. I hope that you enjoy as well!

Billy the Blogging Poet decided to see if he could get the folks at TechDirt.com riled up a bit. Based on the first comment there, I think he was successful!

Over at Blog Around the Clock Coturnix writes about a paper describing the relationship between sleep patterns and social interaction in Fruit Flies. Although I doubt it is what the author had in mind, it makes me think back to my college days, trying to sleep in a crowded dorm room…

… and if you are a little intimidated by the science content in that last post, Coturnix also offers a short note about his son’s growing chess prowess. I have no doubt that he could beat me in a matter on minutes.

After a trip over seas Laurie is back at … slowly she turned and is sharing with us pictures and descriptions from her trip to Italy. I hope the rest of the trip went more smoothly than the flight over did!

Marcus at Fixin’ Healthcare offers some interesting insight into Vitamin D. It reminds me that I already have plans to go for a walk in this sun this afternoon.

What would it be like to make the jump from on-line blogger to print journalist? Ken, at Colonel Corn’s Camera describes just that as, with a little help from his wife, he gets to see his name on a byline. I doubt this will be Ken’s last writing for the print media.

This week Scrutiny Hooligans decides to take on CNN and there interview bias. If they are willing to ask if someone is "a Nancy Pelosi Democrat," why do they never ask if anyone is “"Dennis Hastert Republican?"

Moomin Light takes on a slightly different member of Corporate America. A trip to Victoria’s Secret left her questioning the sales girl’s techniques. I can honestly say that I would have no use for a “Too Sexy” tank top, either.

What do you do every Sunday (besides read The Tar Heel Tavern, of course)? Zah K at A Fine Dish decides to fill us in on his weekly activities. Sadly, some people think that she may be headed towards a hot place, but I think that it is making my stomach growl. I don’t know where she may end up, but I have no doubt that, around dinner time, whoever she is there with will be happy to have her.

Susanne at Tales from the Raven takes her kids out to see the animals at Carnivore Preservation Trust. Sounds like a roaring good time…

Chrisine Kane offers some great suggestions on how to worry less about getting rich and more about being rich. Thirteen ideas that will help you feel better about yourself, regardless of how much is in your wallet.

Finally, I will offer my own submission. Earlier this week I examined a few suggestions to improve math and science education. Our children deserve to succeed in math and science. It would be nice if our schools were set up to help students do just that.

Well, that is about it. Of course, if there are any errors or omissions, please email me at evoledu (at) gmail (dot) com and I will make the corrections. I hope you all enjoyed this tour of the Tar Heel State as much as I did putting it together. See you at next week’s stop…

Scary but not bloody

2006-10-28T08:49:00.000-07:00

Halloween is just around the corner. I am interested to see if we get and trick-or-treaters this year, since I never have before. This is our first year spending the holiday in a house instead of an apartment, so I think we have a chance. We will probably pick up a bag of candy this weekend, and we just need to make sure that we get something that we will be willing to eat if no one shows up.

Something else that seems to happen to us this time of year is a desire to watch scary movies. We watch a lot of movies these days, and although I watched a lot of slasher films back in my younger days, we tend to stay away from anything that would be considered scary. We watch a lot of documentaries (including the entire UP series in the last month) and smaller independent films. Once a year, though, we seem to get taken over by the Halloween vibe. However, we don't really want to watch anything that is particularly bloody or slasher-like. Last night we went to the locally owned rental store nearby and spent a while looking through the 'suspense' section. We left with 'Rear Window', which has always been an excellent movie, but hardly scary or Halloweenish (though, if you ever watch it on DVD make sure to check out the theatrical preview in the bonus section. I don't think I have ever seen a preview where the actor, in character, addressed the audience), and 'The Salton Sea', which neither of us really know anything about, but looked interesting.

So, does anyone have any suggestions of good scary, but not bloody, movies?

Tar Heel Tavern

2006-10-26T14:15:00.000-07:00

Just a reminder, I will be hosting this week's Tar Heel Tavern. Please email submissions to evoledu (at) gmail (dot) com to me by midnight Saturday.

“What Works” in Science and Math Education Reform

2006-10-26T13:27:00.000-07:00

Following from Coturnix over at Blog Around the Clock is a report on what works in science and math education (link to press release document here and PDF of full report here). The study, based on the results of NSF funding of up to $10 million in eight public school districts, presented numerous conclusions, a few of which are listed below with my thought on each.

Elementary School Children Need To Take Science Regularly -
This I agree with completely. I have a lot of respect for what my elementary level colleagues do, but I think that early childhood science education could be improved. Many fellow teachers are impressed by the fact that I teach three different classes at the middle school level. Many elementary school teachers essentially teach nine different classes. It is not surprising that I have never known an elementary teacher that is trained as a science teacher, given how much else they do. It does surprise me, however, how many of the elementary teachers I know fully admit to being uncomfortable teaching science or having students learn science through experimental activities. Most of my students did not actually use the scientific method until middle school. If we want these students to understand and apply the basic ideas of science, we need them to be introduced early and often. Since elementary teachers rarely come from a science background, I think that our students would benefit from an increase in science training as a part of the licensure requirements for new elementary teachers.

Principals Belong in the Classroom -
I like the idea, but I think it may be difficult to convince many administrators to step in. Many principals are former teachers and, in my experience, they tend to be more comfortable in classrooms of their former areas. Also, most principals I have known seem to prefer to avoid taking an active role in the day-to-day classroom activities, perhaps out of a desire to keep a watch over the entire school, perhaps just to avoid undermining the authority of the classroom teacher. It may simply be a matter of personality, but I have a difficult time imagining the administrators I have worked with being an active part of my classroom on a daily basis.

Teachers Need Ongoing, High Quality Training -
Ongoing training is especially valuable for science teachers, as technology and current research is constantly changing. I believe that one of the best ways to involve and engage students is to use the most up-to-date technology available. I am lucky to be in a district that provides a lot of opportunities for high-quality, ongoing science training. Unfortunately, the teachers that are in the greatest need of new training are the ones least likely to take advantage. Other than that specifically required by the school/district, I find that most extra science training courses are taken by younger and newer teachers. However, the teachers that could use the training are those veteran teachers that are "stuck in their ways" and still using the technology and techniques taught 15 years earlier. After a long career, many teachers seem hesitant to "learn new tricks." I believe most districts would benefit from a shift in the type of ongoing training they require. I would recommend a reduction in the required training regarding classroom management and control (if a teacher does not have good management techniques after 10-15 years I do not think he or she ever will) and an increase in the content-based training.

Students Can Meet Tougher Science and Math Requirements -
The idea is, basically, that students will be able to reach the bar that is set for them. If expectations and requirements are increased, students will still be able to succeed. I don't think my experiences give me much insight on this issue, since our district has not significantly changed our testing requirements since I began here. However, that will be changing in the next year or so as new math requirements are put into place. I am cautiously optimistic about the changes, though I worry that, without other changes to the system like those listed above, students may not have the adequate support system required for the new standards. Perhaps I can revisit this post in a couple of years with an update here.

Blogging about blogging (part 2)

2006-10-24T12:17:00.000-07:00

Earlier in the week I wrote this post about my thoughts on the current research to create new heavy elements. I wrote it rather quickly and I certainly do not think it is the best post I have here. I did submit it to the Carnival of Education, but only because I didn't have any better posts for the week (in fact, I submitted it with the note 'this isn't my best writing, but I hope it will do').

At the moment that post has the longest and most well thought out comments I have received since I started here (which still is not very many comments, since there are not a lot of people that actually read this stuff). Plenty of posts that I think are much more thought out and interesting never received any comments. So, why are people spending more time on this post than the others? It is because they disagree with what I said. Frankly, they have every right to be. Even though I did defend my original post, I certainly understand and sympathize with the arguments against what I had to say. Also, I understand why it is easier to post a comment when you disagree with something then when you agree. How long can you stretch out a comment that basically says "good point"?

All of this brings me back to the idea that most people who write blogs want people to read and respond. It is nice to feel like we are not just writing out into the nothingness. So, how does one go about this? Based on my recent experiences here, it would seem that it would be best to write something that I know people would disagree with, maybe even something that I would disagree with. People are probably going to write more if they are upset by a post than if they are not.

Are negative emotional responses easier to create than positive ones? What a depressing question.

(I should add that I am in no way upset at those who posted disagreeing with me. In fact, I approve of and appreciate their comments.)

Periodic Poster

2006-10-23T17:33:00.000-07:00

I remember the first time I found The Wooden Periodic Table Table website I think I spent hours reading about all of the samples the elements that had been collected over the years. Today I learned that Posters are now available.

Now I just need to decide what size I want and go place my order.

Hosting the Tar Heel Tavern

2006-10-22T07:54:00.000-07:00

This week's edition of The Tar Heel Tavern is up at running at Terra Sigillata.

I have decided to throw myself out there and volunteered to host next week's edition. So, if you are from North Carolina, write about North Carolina or have anything else that you think would be appropriate, please send in your submissions to evoledu (at) gmail (dot) com. This is my first time hosting a carnival, so I need as many submissions as possible...

Good math students or happy math students?

2006-10-21T13:52:00.000-07:00

This study has been making the rounds lately and it was in my mind while watching my Geometry and Algebra classes the last couple of days. Basically, researchers found a connection between how much a student enjoys math and how well he or she does. Surprisingly, however, the students with the lower confidence are those that are more successful. The author of the study, Tom Loveless (I do have it admit seeing a man named Loveless say "happiness is overrated" makes me think this came from The Onion), argues that these findings mean that math teachers spend too much time worrying about how students are enjoying the material and not enough time actually teaching the material. Of course, most of us work under the assumption that students will be willing to work harder and spend more time for a class that they enjoy.

In my classroom, I don't see the pattern the authors found. In my experience, the students that seem to show the least confidence are not the best students or the worst students, but more of the middle of the curve. In other words, the highest-scoring students seem confident in the abilities, as do the lowest-scoring students. My high-scoring students do well and know they do well. Although it does not match the pattern found by Loveless, I do not find it surprising or unusual. Likewise, am not surprised that my lower-scoring students show more confidence than other students.

I think this is really a question of cause and effect. Most teachers seem to work under the assumption (one that I found to be enforced though much of my educational coursework) that raising a student's confidence and enjoyment will lead to better performance. Loveless concludes that there is not a connection and the issue is a lack of clear expectations. I believe that both views are oversimplifications. The connection between performance and confidence is also tied to both natural ability and to general academic interests. To clarify, let me break down the three groups (and a couple subgroups) of students I deal with in my math classes:

1. Students who score well - two subgroups:
-- a. Students with strong natural abilities in math. They study little, but grasp concepts quickly and trust their abilities to succeed. Their confidence is a direct result of their natural abilities. Many of them don't claim to be very interested in math, but do well because it does not require much work on their part. For a large majority, they will eventually reach a level of math that does not come so easily and success will require more work than it ever has. I know some of the students will be willing to put in that effort and some will not.

-- b. Students with strong work ethics and spend a great deal of time on the class work. These students do not show the same strong natural abilities of the other successful students but put in the work overcome any deficiencies. These students are willing to work hard either because they enjoy the subject (a rare but not impossible quality to find in middle school math students) or they are simply driven to be successful in school regardless of the subject. They are confident, not as much in their natural skills as mathematicians, but as hard workers.

2. Middle of the curve students:
These students do not find that material comes easily, but they work hard to understand enough to get decent grades. I see a lot of frustration in these students due to both subgroups of the successful students. First, they see the first group of students and are upset by the fact that many of their peers do not work nearly as hard as they do and still do better. They often feel that they "deserve" a better grade because they work harder. Secondly, they see the group of students that do work as hard as they do but get better results. There is a strong desire to succeed with this group, but the lack of results leads to much lower confidence.

3. Students who score poorly:
These students rarely are interested in doing well and show much less effort than their peers. Although I often hear stories about students that try very hard but just cannot get a passing grade, I generally do not see that student in my classroom. In my experience, students that work hard get decent (though not always great) scores. Students who don't have the interest or desire to work for the class do poorly and are not bothered by their results. They often enjoy the time they spend in class, though not necessarily because they like the material or enjoy math. They aren't frustrated by their grades and therefore have fairly high levels of enjoyment and confidence.

Overall, there is a connection between my students' scores and confidence levels, but it is not a simple or obvious one. In order to get a full understanding of the issue, factors such as natural ability and general academic drive must be added to the picture. Students are complicated and understanding how they do or do not succeed is complicated.

That last sentence may be the most obvious result of this entire post.

I teach science and math, not geography

2006-10-20T20:07:00.000-07:00

My results:

Score: 92%
Average Error: 9 miles
Time: 308 seconds

How well can you do?

Blogging about blogging

2006-10-19T13:13:00.000-07:00

I feel that I should warn anyone who might read this that I don't anticipate this post to be interesting to anyone other than myself.

I have been thinking a lot lately about this blog. I have not been doing this for very long, and I don't really know why I started. I guess I just wanted to see if I could keep something like this going. Now that I know that I can, I have to figure out why I keep going. What is the point of what I am doing here?

I think it is safe to say that most all people who maintain blogs want other people to read it. Otherwise, it would be a lot easier to open up a Word document everyday and write there. Although I didn't really think much would come of this place when I started, I do have to admit that it is nice to know at least a couple of people out there read what I write. But, do they get anything out of what they read? There are a million blogs on the internet, covering many different topics. What would a reader get out of my blog that they can't get many other places? What would make this blog a needle in the haystack, not just another piece of hay?

I spent a lot of time early on thinking about my "blog voice". How should my posts sound? How much should I focus on science versus education versus my personal life? Are there any areas that I can write about from the "expert" point of view? Would there be more value in posting my thoughts on current events or examine more timeless topics? However, I realized that I was spending a lot more time thinking about how to post then I did what do post and my writing was suffering. So, I decided that I should just write whatever seemed to be on my mind and let my "voice" be whatever came out.

Now, however, I think I could probably do with some more blog introspection. What, really, am I doing here?

Why do we do what we do?

2006-10-17T14:38:00.000-07:00

My first thought when seeing this article on Science Daily was how my students would react. "Why do they bother to study that?" is one of the most common questions I hear in my classroom (even more common than "Do we have homework?"). I hear it when we talk about the deep ocean ("Why do they spend so much money to find some tiny fish?") geology ("Why would someone bother to just look at rocks?") and biotechnology ("Why do they work so hard to clone animals that we have a lot of anyway?"). I also hear it when we talk about chemistry. In general I find that middle school students respect chemistry, mostly because they think it is all about mixing stuff and causing explosions. However, we always end having the discussion about artificial elements. Students rarely understand why researchers would spend the amount of money required to build these particle accelerators (though I don't think most students really have a strong understanding of the scale that they are built on), especially once they find that the elements only exist for a fraction of a second.

Usually I have a good answer for the questions I get in class. There are legitimate reasons to explore the ocean, study geology and work on cloning and other biotechnologies. However, I have never had a very good answer for the questions about artificial elements. Maybe I just don't know enough about particle physics, but I have never known an answer better than "because we want to extend the bounds of science as much as possible." Although that response is generally accepted, I have always found it rather empty. How do I justify to my students the money spent on this research when it could be spent on curing diseases or helping build water treatment plants in underdeveloped nations?

I have always thought that part of my job, as a science teacher, has been to promote science as a worthwhile pursuit. Sometimes I feel guilty when I don't always believe in it myself.

What can't they deepfry?

2006-10-16T16:54:00.000-07:00

Monday brings me back to the reality of the workweek following a very pleasant visit from some friends from out of town. Although the weather could have been warmer, the timing was just about perfect. What more could you ask for when visiting North Carolina than the state fair? I have now experienced three different state fairs, and they are all different. When I was growing up the Colorado state fair was a yearly event. The whole thing had something of a rodeo feel to it, though we were much more interested in riding the teacups, winning stuffed animals and eating cotton candy. I made one trip to the Iowa state fair back in college and I remember very little other than the giant butter cow and a lot of presentations about corn.

The North Carolina fair seemed a bit harder to pigeonhole. There were the rides and games, of course, though we avoided them (which I was fairly thankful for, since I crossed paths with two students in the ten minutes or so we spent in that area). The animals were interesting, in an "I hope they aren't always in these cages" sort of way. Most of my time in the rabbit building was spent trying to figure out what, exactly, makes one rabbit "better" than the rest. For the most part, I couldn't find any differences between the first, second and third place rabbits in each of the breeds.

The highlight, however, had to be the food. Pretty much everything I had heard about the fair before had revolved around the variety of items that they could put into a deep fryer. Thankfully, I was not disappointed. Both the fried Snickers and fried Twinkies looked terrible, so I ended up going with the fried Oreos. I was initially caught off guard by the fact that the cookie was melted (though, in retrospect, I really should not have been, given the temperatures of the fryers) and the lack of exterior crunch. All in all, it was certainly worth it. And, as an added bonus, I could feel it in my stomach for the next four hours.

There was one food vendor that even I could not bring myself to approach. Who decided that the best option to add to smoothies and lemonade was clam chowder?

Do photons celebrate touchdowns?

2006-10-15T13:17:00.000-07:00

The most interesting thing I have seen today has to be this video of Ohio State football coach Jim Tressel explaining photosynthesis. I don't know where this came from, but I would guess from the credits at the end that it was done for one of the introductory Biology courses (since it was produced by Dr. Susan Fisher, one of my former entomology professors that I think was on the cycle to teach the intro courses).

It makes me feel good, both as an Ohio State graduate (and football fan) as well as a scientist, that this video exists. There is a lot to be embarrassed about in college football these days (as could be seen last night), and I don't know if there are a lot of coaches out there who would take the time and effort to be a part of an educational video about photosynthesis. And, frankly, if some college freshman is better able to understand the concept because it is explained using football (or, is more likely to pay attention because the coach s/he loves is the one explaining it) then it was worth doing.

Busy weekend

2006-10-14T09:10:00.000-07:00

I don't have much computer time available with guest from out of town this weekend. However, on Monday you can expect a full review of our trip to the NC state fair. I hope you are excited...

The real victim

2006-10-12T12:42:00.000-07:00

It was very strange to watch the flow of information regarding yesterday's plane crash. As far as I could tell, the steps that occurred were:

1. There was a plane crash in NYC
2. We don't think it was a terrorist attack
3. We are confident that it was an accident
4. The plane was registered to Cory Lidle
5. Lidle might have been on the plane
6. Lidle was killed on the plane
7. Did Lidle intentionally crash the plane and kill himself?

There are a few things that I think are interesting about this whole process. First of all, there seemed to be two peaks of news frenzy regarding this. The first was when the crash first occurred and it was still unclear as to if it was an attack or not. The second was when it was confirmed that Lidle was on the plane. What is to be taken from the fact that the second news peak appeared to be much larger than the first? Does it mean that people (the media?) are more interested in the death of a celebrity (though I think it is a bit of a stretch to claim that Cory Lidle was a household name before yesterday) than a possible terrorist attack? Or, does it speak to the fact that most people were willing to dismiss the possibility of another plane crash terrorist attack when they first heard the news? In some ways, this strikes me as a good thing, that we are not jumping straight to the "oh my god, we are being attacked again" like we have in past (being a person that tried to fly out of Newark Airport on November 12, 2001, I can tell you how frustrating that reaction can be). Of course, it is also frustrating to see how people treat this accident differently once a famous person was identified as being involved. Is the death of a baseball player any more tragic than anyone else?

Along those lines, there is one other thing that jumped out to be watching the news is the fact that I only saw questions of a possible suicide raised after Lidle was identified. Was he any more likely to attempt suicide than anyone else? Were the questions asked because of the Yankee's recent postseason loss? Or, do we have a greater need to attach an immediate and dramatic reason to the death of a celebrity than to that of an unidentified individual?

Finally, it was very strange that a number of the news outlets were running this picture of Alec Baldwin during the story. Why is he involved with this story? Why should anyone care that he was trying to get to the crash scene?

49 UP

2006-10-10T18:18:00.000-07:00

I am sitting here typing this with 42 UP on the television. I have seen numerous documentaries, but I have to believe that the UP series is the most ambitious project I have ever heard of. Interviewing the same 14 people every seven years since 1964 (when they were all seven). I though that 7 Plus 7 (which should be retroactively named 14 UP) and 21 UP were the weakest films, but I have found the last couple quite engaging.

We have plans to go to the local theater to see 49 UP this weekend. I am very much looking forward to it, though I am disappointed that we have to wait another seven years until 56 UP.

I don't think he was supposed to say that

2006-10-10T18:16:00.000-07:00

I know I am far from the first to post this, but I couldn't resist. Recently Tucker Carlson was on MSNBC:

CARLSON: It goes deeper than that though. The deep truth is that the elites in the Republican Party have pure contempt for the evangelicals who put their party in power. Everybody in...

MATTHEWS: How do you know that? How do you know that?

CARLSON: Because I know them. Because I grew up with them. Because I live with them. They live on my street. Because I live in Washington, and I know that everybody in our world has contempt for the evangelicals. And the evangelicals know that, and they're beginning to learn that their own leaders sort of look askance at them and don't share their values.

MATTHEWS: So this gay marriage issue and other issues related to the gay lifestyle are simply tools to get elected?

CARLSON: That's exactly right. It's pandering to the base in the most cynical way, and the base is beginning to figure it out

Strange ways to get here

2006-10-08T10:28:00.000-07:00

As it is a good way to procrastinate, I just checked my site counter and stats. This blog is pretty new and I don't really expect too many people to read it, but I am interested to see how people get here. Usually it is from comments on other sites or through a carnival (last week's Carnival of Education sent a particularly large number of people, as did the Tar Heel Tavern from Coturnix.

This morning, I found that someone ended up here after a Google search for the phrase "Can't understand my teacher." I don't know exactly what you were looking for, unknown reader, but I hope that you eventually get some insight into that confusing teacher of yours.

Need some time on the sofa

2006-10-07T17:37:00.000-07:00

After running a couple of errands today my wife and I decided to spend some time wandering the local bookstore. I don't think that either of us really had much in mind, but that never really bothered either of us. About an hour later I had spent much more money that I really should have and now have a lot of reading ahead of me. The two magazines I picked up will certainly be the first to get read. Of course, I had to get the latest issue of Seed Magazine since my subscription does not start for another month or so. Although I would purchase Seed regardless of that particular issue' content, I am particularly interested in the cover story on E.O. Wilson. Wilson was the Ph.D. advisor for my Masters advisor. It sort of feels like he is an 'academic grandfather' to me, and I always hearing what he has to say. The second magazine is the newest from Skeptical Inquirer. Unlike Seed, I do not purchase Skeptical Inquirer unless I think there is a particular reason to do so. This afternoon I was caught by the cover article, an excerpt from Sean B. Carroll's new book The Making of the Fittest: DNA and the Ultimate Forensic Record of Evolution. I decided this was a good compromise, since I was already planning on buying the book, but feeling guilty about how much the trip was going to cost me.

Of course, magazines are interesting, but really just something that I use to fill empty time when it presents itself. I was really excited about getting a couple of actual books to read. There are a lot of things that are frustrating about being a teacher, and not having time to read is very high on my list. However, one of my goals this year is to make more time for personal time. I plan on starting my first book Warped Passages: Unraveling the Mysteries of the Universe's Hidden Dimensions, by Lisa Randall, later this week. I don't really know anything about Randall, so I don't know what to expect from this. However, theoretical physics is something of a guilty pleasure of mine. I have no training in it and don't know anything other than what I have read in mass market books, but I still find many of the ideas to be fascinating. Basically, I look for books like this to confuse and surprise me. Along the same lines, my other purchase was The Trouble With Physics: The Rise of String Theory, the Fall of a Science, and What Comes Next", by Lee Smolin. I have read a few things about string theory (I read Brian Greene's The Fabric of the Cosmos: Space, Time, and the Texture of Reality while on my honeymoon cruise in Alaska a few years back) and I find it completely fascinating in a I-can't-quite-bring-myself-to-believe-in-this sort of way. I have read a number of books explaining and promoting string theory and I think it is finally time to read about the other half of the story.

I plan on updating here with my thoughts on all of these purchases here once I have gotten through them. Hopefully that won't be a year from now.

Feigning excitement

2006-10-05T18:08:00.000-07:00

My district is very specific about the course of study for middle school science, basically laying out a schedule day by day (which is not the case for most of the other subject areas). As a young teacher, especially back during my first year, this can be very reassuring (though some might call it a crutch). Trying to plan individual lessons can be stressful enough, but putting together larger unit plans can seem overwhelming at times. I did very much appreciated having the decision of what to teach taken out of my hands and just be left to worry about how to teach and manage my classroom.

That all being said, I really don't like they way we start the year. Basically our curriculum covers five major topics: water, disease, biotechnology, chemistry, and geologic history / evolution. I enjoy most of our topics, especially the evolution, disease and biotechnology. However, we start with the water unit. We talk about water properties, chemical structure, freshwater, groundwater, water treatment, water quality, conservation, pollution, ocean environments and ecosystems. All in all, we spend the first nine week on water. Nine weeks. A full quarter of the year. I have yet to meet an eighth grade student who finds discussing water to be interesting. It is my job to get them excited anyway.

The real key to getting students excited is to be an excited teacher. The problem is that I just don't find water all that interesting either. Students follow the example they see in the classroom. I do my best to be as interested and excited as possible. Maybe I am not a very good actor, or maybe my students are extra perceptive, but I don't think they are fooled. It is frustrating to be unable to start the year really grabbing their attention. I can get excited about geologic history (it is easy to get excited about dinosaurs), evolution, diseases, biotechnology or even chemistry. I can only imagine how nice it would be to start the year with something that gets them really excited. I can only imagine how nice it would be to start the year with something that gets me really excited.

We are six weeks into the year. Three more weeks of water. Three more weeks of working not only on lesson plans, but also on plans for how to set a good example as an excited teacher. Once these three weeks are over I can stop acting and actually get excited.

Apparently it is my fault

2006-10-03T16:46:00.000-07:00

I was planning on ranting today about my frustration with the way the 8th grade course of study has us start the year, but there is a follow-up to my post from yesterday (I am sure that I will be frustrated with the COS long enough to post another day).

Following the link from Dispatchs from the Culture Wars, I find this report of an interview with Brian Rohrbough, the father of one of the Columbine victims. It would seem that not only does Mr. Rohrbough have an explanation for the recent school shootings, but apparently it is my fault. He claimed that, among other things, "... the public school system has taught in a moral vacuum, expelling God from the school and from the government, replacing him with evolution, where the strong kill the weak, without moral consequences and life has no inherent value."

Evolution is in our state-based course of study and I teach it without apology. I am fortunate enough to not have very many students challenge me (I was expecting a fight last year from my openly-creationist student, but I never heard a single complaint), but when it does come up, I tell the student (or parent) that I teach science in my science classroom. As long as evolution is a part of my curriculum, I will teach it.

According to Mr. Rohrough, this means that I teach without morals and my students are learning that "life has no inherent value." I wish that I could invite Mr. Rohrbough into my classroom. I wish that he could have been in my classroom this morning listening to my students discussing why it is important that they worry about pollution and water conservation. I wonder if Mr. Rohrough would have seen the same morality in my students that I saw as they objected with outrage to my claim (playing the devil's advocate, of course), that it is not unreasonable for some people to put their own finances above protecting the environment. I wonder how Mr. Rohrough would have reacted to see my student last year, a product of public schools in a course that teaches evolution, worked up nearly to the point of tears because of how frustrated she was by the inability of our country to help the parts of the world fighting malaria (during our disease transmission unit).

I see morality in my classroom and in my students everyday. I wish, for his sake, Mr. Rohrough could see what I do.

Another day...

2006-10-02T18:26:00.000-07:00

Another day, another sad headline. Is it just me, or have there been a lot of the school shootings lately? I realize that, as a teacher, I am probably more sensitive to these things, but it does surprise me how little awareness of these events I see around here. The recent school shootings in Bailey were big news, but no one knew anything about it here. Even at my school, there was no mention of it.

In a way it is nice that there is not some overreaction to every news event with panic and fear. However, I am not sure if complete ignorance is the best option either.

King Kong did live on an island...

2006-10-01T17:00:00.000-07:00

I have always thought the fact that small animals tend to be larger on islands, and large animals tend to be smaller is very interesting, especially as it related to other "island-like" environments. I did my Masters work on springtails found in caves. It is often said that caves are "island-like" in that cave-obligate species are isolated from other populations even if they are located nearby. I think that you could also argue that many caves are "island-like" in their lack of resources and in low levels of competition. Although my research was more focused on the genetic side of things, I noticed that as I sorted many individuals collected from both cave and surface populations I never saw any signs of a larger size of the cave-dwelling springtails. It struck me as interesting, though I never gave it too much thought. I assumed that either the populations I was sampling from had not existed in the caves long enough for the change in size to occur or whatever really drove the increase on islands was not found in the "island-like" caves.

Although it has been a while since I completed that research, I was reminded of it when I saw this article on some new research. The study showed that the "island rule" holds in "island-like" deep sea environments. The large isopod pictured above is an example of larger body size that has evolved in the deep ocean. So, if the island rule holds for islands and the deep ocean, does it hold for caves as well? If it does, why did I find no qualitative evidence of it in cave springtails? My Google searching for applications of the island rule to caves turned up many articles on the Homo floresiensis remains found a few years back, but nothing much further specifically related to size. A few sites made reference to "cave arthropods showing 'typical adaptations' such as ... changes in size ..." but did not back up the claim with data or citations. There were a couple of hits that looked promising, but did not allow me access from my non-university based computer. There are times that I really miss being connected to a university library, on-line journals and search options.

So, were my observations just an anomaly, a result of populations being too young for the change to have occurred? How long would they need to really show the change? If I could go back, I would have extended my research to examine these questions. How old where the populations I was studying? I know the caves themselves are quite old, but that really says nothing about the populations inside. There are not too many times that I miss grad school, but every once in a while I am struck by a question that I wish I could research. Maybe if I could just get myself to a good library I would find out that someone else already knows the answer. Unfortunately, that is never quite as satisfying as figuring it out yourself.

Appalling

2006-10-01T13:08:00.000-07:00

Given China's human rights record, I guess we really shouldn't be surprised to see this story of 'Animal Olympics'. I don't have the time or the heart right now to say anything about this other than that two pictures in the linked article are truly appalling.

I thought school hazing was just for students

2006-09-30T08:17:00.000-07:00

I just heard about this story out of Chicago where a school superintendent created a video of fake interviews with new teachers (using their real answers to other questions) and then had it posted on the district's website. I suggest you watch the video clip on the link, as I think it gives a better feel for the story then the article alone does. Another article about the local reaction had a quote describing the whole thing as "just some new teacher hazing."

When I was in high school hazing was big news. My 8th grade year there was some hazing that involved a girl being forced to drink motor oil. She spent significant time in the hospital and had many lingering health problems. The older students were expelled, charged with assault (and various other things) and I believe at least one of them ended up serving jail time. Not surprisingly, the school instituted a no-tolerance policy and the students heard a lot about why hazing is wrong and dangerous and why it would not be allowed.

I think my old experiences are part of the reason why it is so strange to hear about a superintendent hazing students. I always thought of schools and administration in general being very strongly against hazing. I know that I would never be okay with any of my students being involved in any hazing activity. I did notice when I first started teaching here that hazing was listed as one of the "offenses" on our discipline report forms. Last year one of my students was looking at his write up for another problem and asked me what hazing meant. I remember being pretty pleased by the fact that he had one idea what it was.

That all being said, I find myself wondering what I would do if I was a teacher included on this interview tape. I don't think the video itself would bother me. I have seen these type of things before, and they can be funny in the right context (I remember being really amused by one that Weird Al did in which he "asked" Celine Dion about how terrible it was to be captured by cannibals and she responded "I loved waking up to the smell of my mother cooking in the morning"), but it would really bother me that they video was put out there for students to see. I believe that one of the many jobs of a good administration is to support its teachers. This video just serves to undermine these teachers. I find that offensive, and if I was involved my gut reaction would be to quit and find a job in another district. However, I have to remember that all of the teachers involved are new to the district and many may be in their first year overall. I know that finding that first job can be very stressful and I can't imagine turning around and going right back out into the job search. It is one thing to be a veteran teacher out looking for a job; it is another to be a teacher a month into your first year out looking for another job.

Regardless of whether or not the teachers are out looking for new jobs, there are more than a couple of people that think the superintendent should be. Without knowing anything else about how good of a superintendent this guy is, I am not sure I want to go quite that far. However, I know that most students get punished for hazing. I don't think we should treat a superintendent any differently.

New look

2006-09-29T14:24:00.000-07:00

If you have visited this blog before, you might have noticed a new look here. I was updating to the new beta version of blogger and thought I would update the template as well. I felt the older one was a bit dry, though I am not sure that I am completely sold on this one yet. I would like to try a few options, but I don't want to be changing the look here every couple of days.

I guess I should just suck it up, make a decision, and stick with it.

Obsession

2006-09-28T19:37:00.000-07:00

There are a number of blogs that I read every day dealing with science, politics and education. The first blog I read everyday, however, is UniWatch, which is run by Paul Lucas. Mr. Lucas describes the site as "the obsessive study of athletic aesthetics", which is a pretty accurate description. Basically, the site maintains a record of the details of sports uniforms and attire. Of course, Mr. Lucas voices his opinions on many current choices in sports attire (he maintains a strong hatred of the color purple and a love of baseball stirrups). I will fully admit to being a sports fan, primarily hockey and football, but I can't say that I have ever made much notice of the details of uniforms until I began reading Mr. Lucas's blog. I am nowhere near as observant while watching games as Mr. Lucas and many of his readers, but I do find myself noticing many more details than I ever did before (while watching the Ohio State - Penn State game last weekend, the first thing I thought of when I saw that the Penn State running back has ripped his pants was about the reaction of all the UniWatch readers). That all being said, I would not say that I have an obsession with sports attire the way that Mr. Lucas says he does.

What is obsession? How is it different than passion? Where do we draw the line between the two? I would say that one of the two has a positive connotation and one has a negative connotation, though Mr. Lucas uses the word "obsession" in a way that does not seem to imply anything negative. I think that most people would be comfortable about admitting they have passions (they may not want to admit what those passions are, but that is another issue entirely). Would people be so quick to admit that they have obsessions? Is any of the difference between my views of passions and obsessions related to the popularity of obsessive-compulsive disorders? Is being obsessed a disease? How much does a person have to care about something before it is an obsession? Is the standard for obsession the same as that for being unhealthy?

I don't know if any of the questions I just posed are actually meaningful, or if the difference between obsession and passion is simply a matter of semantics. Either way, it is something that I think about a lot while reading Mr. Lucas's daily posts.

Classroom guests

2006-09-27T14:53:00.000-07:00

At the start of the year I learned that we would be having some guests in our school this October. Apparently we have a "sister school" in Japan and have been regularly sending students back and forth. I don't have a good idea of the arrangement, but I get the impression that a group from one school visits the other about once every 4-5 years. Earlier this week we were given some more specific details, the most important being that there will be about twenty students and five teachers here for three days and each Japanese student will be paired with a "buddy" here that they will follow for the day. All in all, I think that this is a really excellent program. Most people would call my school "diverse", but in that way that most public schools are. Students are exposed to a mix of white, black and Hispanic groups and cultures, but have little experience with anything like Japanese culture. The students here seem excited and, frankly, anything that gets students here excited is a good thing.

Yesterday I learned the not-so-great details. Apparently 15 of the "buddies" from my school are students of mine, including ten in a single class. This means that for three days I am going to have an extra dozen (ten students plus two teachers) in my classroom. For the moment I am just ignoring the fact that I don't know how I can physically fit that many extra people in my room, which is already overcrowded. What I am focusing on is the request from our administration that, since I have so many guests, I make sure my lessons those days "show our guests some positive details of North Carolina." Of course, I am expected to still stay on the pacing guide and fit my lessons to the state standards. I am not really worried about Geometry (which will only have about seven guests) since I have been told that one of the Japanese teachers is willing to do a big origami project (which should actually fit the standards quite well and won't get me too far off the pacing guide). What I am really stuck on is Advanced Science (which will have the full load of 12 guests). According to the district pacing guide, those three days are right in the middle of an 11 day unit on ocean ecosystems. So, I am supposed to come up with a project for ocean ecosystems that somehow also highlights North Carolina? I realize that we do have a coast here, so the connection is not as bad as it would be if I was still in Ohio, but it will still be a big stretch. Of course, I probably should also mention that I have not been further east in this state than Wake County and don't know a thing about our coast.

As I see it, I have three options. The simplest is to just ignore the fact that I have guests and teach the lessons that I would normally. Although it is tempting, I have no doubt that this would get back to the administration (actually, I suspect that they might end up in my classroom those days as well), and they would not be happy with me. Also, I imagine this would be pretty boring for the guest (why fly halfway around the world just to learn about things you already learned about at home?). The second option is to just scrap my pacing guide and standards and come up with some North Carolina based science lesson. This probably wouldn't get me in trouble, but it would cost me three days with my students and we already are expected to cover more material than we have time for. Also, I have not lived in this state for that long (just a touch over one year) and really have no idea what I would cover in those lessons. North Carolina is the focus of the 8th grade social studies curriculum, so maybe one of them can help. The third option is the ideal, which is to some how find a way to teach about ocean ecosystems and North Carolina at the same time.

Although I am not sure it is actually possible, I am still holding out hope that I will be struck with some brilliant idea and actually pull off the third option. Um... anyone know of any good North Carolina ocean ecosystem lessons?

I don't understand

2006-09-26T18:11:00.000-07:00

The story is a few days old, but as a science teacher I feel like I can't skip the chance to give my thoughts on this story out of Kansas. Basically, a high school teacher was drawing blood in a class and had a couple of dozen students use the same lancets. Let me get a couple of things out of the way first. I assume this was for either a blood typing lab or just for something to look at under the microscopes. I think that both activities are worthwhile. Also, it is worth mentioning that the chances of any disease being transmitted via a lancet are pretty small (it is not like they were drawing blood with a syringe or anything).

That all being said, I truly don't understand what this teacher was thinking. First of all, although it was pretty common back when I was in high school, it is rare to hear about any science teacher drawing blood in the classroom any more. Health reasons aside, all new science teachers here were warned that it is actually considered a privacy issue for students (which I don't know if I agree with entirely, but that could make for another post entirely). Also, I have made slides out of my own fresh blood and, frankly, it doesn't always work that well. It is much easier to just use to prepared slide. Along the same lines, I use the "fake blood" for blood typing labs and it always works great. I just don't see any advantage to using real blood in the classroom these days.

Of course, that is all besides the main point here. How can any teacher, much less an anatomy teacher, not know that each student must have their own lancet? Every teacher in our district goes through the blood-born disease training every couple of years and all of the science teachers get an extra round of training on blood spills and lab safety. Lancets are very cheap and are sold in large boxes. If cost or supply availability was an issue, the lab should not have been started in the first place. I have thought about this for a few days now and I simply cannot come up with any believable reason that this would have even been attempted.

It also surprises me that so many students would have used the same lancet without objecting. I would hope that my students would be aware enough to not let me stick them with a pin that I had just used on another student (though, to be fair, I don't know the details and the students may not have been aware that the lancet had already been used). Blood disease, especially AIDS, are well-known enough these days that I expect most high school student would understand the risks here.

As I said before, the actual risk of disease transfer is pretty low, so I imagine that all students involved will be fine. I can only imagine the lawsuits and backlash that would happen if anyone actually contracted any disease because of this. I know that science teachers always run a higher risk of lawsuits because of the higher risks that go along with labs. I know that before I do anything in my class I always review every detail with student safety in mind, both for their sake and for my own. I don't understand how any teacher could conduct a classroom activity with such an obvious risk to students.

Bad news to end a good day

2006-09-25T14:19:00.000-07:00

Mondays are rarely really good days. Add to that the fact that I was trying a new lab that involved chemicals and beakers full of water made me less than excited about heading into work this morning. However, it all turned out really well. The students had some initial confusion about the lab details, but seemed to get into it and were almost entirely on task all class. The results seemed relevant and worthwhile. My math students understood the lesson without any major trouble and my last period class was unusally well behaved when I had a surprise observation (though, to be fair, they were probably good because they were worried that my observer was there to see them). All in all, it was a really good day, esspecially for a Monday. They dropped the big news on us at the faculty meeting, though. Our grade-level adminstrator is leaving in three weeks. This is very bad news. She had been at the school for 12 years and kept everything running perfectly. Everyone I know here loves working for her. Now, everyone is running around like the world is about to come to an end. This is most certainly not good news, but I am doing my best to withhold a final decision until I meet the replacement. We have a teacher here who is licenced for administration who I would love to see get promoted to the job, but I have been told that she is not interested. This could make for a long year. It could be even worse if all of the teachers talking about leaving now actually follow through next summer.

Getting back

2006-09-23T18:49:00.000-07:00

It has been a while since I have posted here, which I guess shouldn't be a surprise if you realize that my last post was from the first day of school. It was so much easier to post daily when I had the free-time of summer. However, I have decided that I don't want this blog to slip away from me.

So, what has happened since the school year started? Just the usual, I guess. I have given a few tests and done a couple of labs. I drove my Algebra class crazy by insisting that doing algebra keeps me healthy. I had a student tell me that it was okay that I don't have a dog to keep me company as long as I have a wife (a comment that I found much more amusing than my wife did). I have had meetings and parent conferences. I have started to get to know this year's group of students and am pretty happy with my classes right now.

My science classes start the year with a long unit on water. Although there are interesting things to say about water, it would be really nice to start the year with something that gets the attention of teenagers a bit more. There really is a limit to how engaging I can make water polarity. We will be doing a new lab about testing water quality on monday and tuesday. I have high hopes, though you never know what is going to happen the first time with a new lab.

I promise that it won't be another month before I post again.

1 down, 179 more to go...

2006-08-27T12:23:00.000-07:00

The school year is offically underway. My first day yesterday was fine, though it wasn't really stellar. My classes are a little smaller than last year, which is nice. However, I think that I have a few more of the "troublemakers" than I did before. There is one student in particular that I had to pull out of class on the very first day and tell him that his talking and jokes are not appropriate. I was somewhat surprised that he would need something like that on the very first day. I don't know if I was more or less suprised to later learn that he had the same conversation with every other teacher he has here this year. I guess the good news is that, if he is a problem, it won't just be for me.

I do feel a little bad for complaining about students after the first day. I really do think that I will have a lot of smart, helpful and sweet students this year. A few of them even seemed excited for the school year to get started again.

Now I just have to figure out those lesson plans for next week...

Getting going again

2006-08-20T10:51:00.000-07:00

I haven't been able to post in a few days, since we have had guests in from out of town. All the while I was running around town entertaining them, I felt like I had all of these good thoughts for new posts, and here I am without an idea of where I am going. Oh well...

Last week we had our first full staff meeting and we will have students for the first time this friday. It was nice to meet all of the new teachers, though I am having a difficult time remembering all of their names. A few are in their first year, having just completed student teaching in the spring. On a purely selfish level, I am really glad that they are here. Last year I was the only first-year teacher in our school and I felt like I was often the only one who didn't really know what was going on. It is nice to know that I am not "the new kid" anymore.

Talking to some of the new people really did make me realize how much that one year really changes things. There were a couple of times when they were asking me about the school, the students, policies, etc. and I was just rambling off my answers that it struck me as strange that these people would actually care about what I have to say.

I am going to have to get used to this.

Searching for a good cause

2006-08-14T20:47:00.000-07:00

Just a quick note to mention a way to give money to a charity of your choice while surfing the net. If you choose to conduct your internet searches using Good Search they will donate money to the charity of your choice everytime you make a search.

Tar Heel Tavern

2006-08-13T13:58:00.000-07:00

Just a quick note to point out that this week's Tar Heel Tavern is up at Another blue puzzle piece. Enjoy!

NCGLFF

2006-08-13T11:40:00.000-07:00

My wife and I bought a couple of five-packs to movies at this weekend's North Carolina Gay and Lesbian Film Festival in Durham. Here are some of my thoughts on the movies we saw.

On Thursday night we went to our first film, Amnesia - The James Brighton Enigma. A French-Canadian film, definitely had an "artsy-indy" feel to it, which is something that I generally enjoy. Inspired by a true story, it is about a man who wakes up in Montreal not being able to remember his name, or anything about himself other than that he is gay. Overall, I thought that the movie was very well done, though I overheard some other people afterwards claiming that it was "pretentious" and a little bit full of itself. I think that the filmmaker would have been better served to focus more on James himself and less on those around him, but it is only a minor complaint of mine. The scene where the audience finally finds out what (possibly) happened that caused him to lose his memory is certainly a powerful one and strongest image from the movie. I would certainly recommend this movie to anyone who enjoys art house films, but not if they are in the mood for something light.

Friday afternoon we saw Lesbian Grandmothers from Mars, a documentary about a lesbian couple (who are grandmothers, obviously) who bike across the country in support of equal marriage rights. I generally enjoy documentaries, and while this was not the best I have ever seen, it was enjoyable and showed a story I was not familiar with. Although the story was slow at times, the movie's strength was the way it really captured the emotions of the two women. Their openness about the need for acceptance (not just tolerance), their love for each other and their families and their thoughts about their own identity was quite touching (I found scene with one woman talking about the effects of her mastectomy on her self image to be nearly heartbreaking). This is a film that I would love for all of my students to see (though I know that I would never be able to get away with telling them to see it), since it would show people opposed to equal marriage rights just how it affects the lives of real people.

Friday evening we saw what was probably the most talked about movie of the festival, Fat Girls. We saw this in a full Fletcher Hall, which seats about 1000, and I think everyone had a great time. The story of the high school friendship between gay man and an overweight woman. Both of them are outcasts and have to learn to come to terms with who they are and be comfortable with themselves. I think this movie was written specifically for my sense of humor. Some of the scenes were touched with just enough absurdity to be really perfect. I don't remember the last time I saw an audience laugh as much at a movie as they did at this one. Also, the work of Ash Christian is particularly impressive. Not only did he play the lead role perfectly, he also wrote, directed and produced the movie. There aren't too many adults that can do all of that successfully, much less a 20 year-old. I hope that he is able to continue in the industry, since he seems to be off to a great start.

Saturday afternoon we saw Coffee Date in another packed theater. Another very funny story of a straight man (Todd) set up on a blind date with a gay man (Kelly) as a joke. The two of them, once they figure out what is going on, get along well and strike up a friendship. This starts everyone assuming that Todd is gay and, eventually, even gets Todd to question his own sexuality. All in all, another good movie, and there were scenes that were really laugh-out-loud funny, which is something that I rarely do. It was well written and I was pleased to see the film avoid the cliche ending that I was worried that it was heading towards. That all being said, I don't think that I ever really connected with Todd the was that I was supposed to. The movie's plot felt like something from a sitcom ("strange mix up leads to lots of laughs!"), which is why I was not surprised to learn that the film started as a short. I think that it might have made more of an impact if the filmmaker had cut out a few of the jokes and spent a bit more time focusing on Todd's process of questioning (and eventually finding) his true self. Of course, the filmmaker may not have been trying to make an impact. In terms of getting a laugh the movie was extremely successful, I would just have liked to see a bit more depth.

Saturday evening we saw our last film, Red Doors. This was probably the best overall film we saw, though I thought it was an unusual choice for the film festival, since there was not a large gay or lesbian focus. The movie shows the story of the Wong family and all of their relationship troubles. There is the depression of the father and how the mother copes with it. Daughter Katie has a prank-based relationship with a fellow student at her school. Samantha is struggling with her questions about her engagement after she sees and old flame. The last member of the Wongs, Julie, develops a relationship with an actress working at her hospital. Julie's relationship is the only gay or lesbian story in the film, and it is probably the story that gets the least attention. The first time they kiss (about half way through the movie) got at lot of cheers and a number of "it is about time" comments from the audience. That all being said, the film was excellent. It was funny and touching at the same time. There is a theme of the importance of family, and it is carried through the end without being overbearing. Gay and lesbian themes aside, this was a very well done film that I think most anyone would enjoy.

All in all, we had a great experience at this festival. A few people we know here asked why we, a straight couple, would go to a gay and lesbian film festival. The short answer is that enjoyable movies are always worth seeing. The longer (and more accurate answer) is that I really love living somewhere where this is possible. As I have mentioned on this blog before, I grew up in Colorado Springs, where religious oppression rules and the thought of a gay and lesbian film festival would have been laughable (at least, one that was not surrounded by protest and anger and the like). I think it is important to support this community and its values. Before we moved to North Carolina a lot of our friends thought it was strange that we were moving to "a southern hick red state". The truth is that we now live in the most accepting community I have ever been a part of.

It makes me proud to live where I do.

Friday Fun

2006-08-11T04:28:00.000-07:00

This will have to be a quick (and early morning) post for me today, since I am off to the second day of my geometry workshop and then my wife and I have tickets to two movies at our local Gay and Lesbian Film Festival here (we saw one movie last night). I plan on writing a more detailed post of the films later.

But, for now I recommend confusing yourself a bit with this website.

In some not-so fun news, this is terrible:

The question asked if you agree with the statment "human beings, as we know them, developed from earlier species of animals."

Geometry

2006-08-10T13:31:00.000-07:00

I attended the first day of a two-day geometry workshop today. In general, I have found all of these professional development days to be a waste of my time. There is a lot of talk about a lot of things that I have heard many times before and demonstrations of technologies that I have already figured out how to use (how hard it is to use a search engine, really?).

That being said, today went very well. The woman running the workshop said that, basically, we were all there to work on teaching our geometry course better. So, we just worked our way through the textbook, talking about every section and different ways to cover the material.

It was very direct, straightforward, uncomplicated and useful. I wish all of my other professional development days could be the same.

Quick Notes

2006-08-09T06:29:00.000-07:00

Two quick things this morning:

The Carnival of Education -- Week 79 is up and rolling at California LiveWire.

I cannot stop playing this game. I honestly don't know what is wrong with me.

The big questions

2006-08-08T18:48:00.000-07:00

Reading a recent post in A Blog Around the Clock got me thinking about what the future holds for my children. We don't have any children, and don't plan on any in the near future. However, we would like to see one or two start to show up in about three or four years. Sometime between now and then my wife and I will have to make a decision or two about how to raise them.

We are both pretty strong in our atheistic beliefs, but it wasn't until recently that I started to realize that it was possible to raise children outside of a religious context. I was born and raised in Colorado Springs (I know the top of this blog says that I am a Midwesterner, but I didn't discover that until later in life), where religion seems to rule all. My parents, a Jew and a Polish Catholic, decided that I should be raised without religion, so that I could choose later. Unfortunately, it is impossible for children in that city to avoid being told about god, the devil, and all of that good stuff. So, they decided I might as well learn it from them. I was raised Jewish, though it was never a huge part of my life.

Now, I have to think about what I will do with my own children. Should I tell them the things that I was told as a child? Should I tell them what I believe now? Should I go the route my parents had wanted and not tell them anything?

The problem with the first option is that I have a hard time with the idea of pushing beliefs that I don't hold. I have a hard enough time keeping my mouth shut when I hear other people talking about god. I can't imagine actually saying such things to my own child. The problem with the second option is that there are still many places and people that do not approve of us atheists, and I don't know if I want my children to feel the brunt of that just yet. I have been told that I am a sinner and will burn in hell. I don't really care how many times that I hear it. However, I am not sure I would want my young children to hear it. The problem with the last option is that it really isn't practical. I would very likely run into the same problems that my parents did. The ideas of religion are everywhere. They would be unavoidable.

Being honest, I expect that option two will win out in the end. They will be my children, after all, and they will deserve to hear how I feel about the world. Of course, I might actually want to talk to my wife about this all first.

I would love to hear about the experiences of anyone else that have dealt with similar questions.

P.C.

2006-08-07T12:25:00.000-07:00

The Professional Association of Teachers strikes again. This time they recommend that the word "clever" is not appropriate for students. Generally, I a pretty standard bleeding-heart liberal. I think it is important to consider the words that we use and if they will be considered offensive. I don't think it is too much trouble to think about the effects of our words and actions.

That being said, there has to be a line drawn somewhere. This union of teachers (based out of Oxford) made a lot of headlines last year for suggesting that the word "failure" be replaced with "deferred success". Most people are just going to laugh at that, make some comment about being overly politically correct. Just like the recent move to using purple ink because red is "too stressful. What, really, is wrong with the word "clever"? According to the group from Oxford, we need call students "successful" because we don't want to live in a world that mocks being clever. I agree that mocking cleverness does not help our society, but how does changing the word itself change what people do or how they feel? It is the idea behind the word that we need to address.

Pretty much any teacher can tell you that most of our students do not value intelligence as much as we would like. How many schools are there were the "smart kids" are more popular than the "jocks"? How many times have we heard a student picked on or insulted for being smart? Clearly, most of our students do not value the same things that we, both as teachers and as healtly members of society, value. So, what do we do? We tell the bullies not to make those insults. We tell our bright students that they will be successful and to try to not be bothered by the popularity those kids with athletic ability have. Does that really matter in the long run? Is there any way that we can address the large-scale attitudes that exist in our schools today?

Maybe, maybe not. But, I don't think that changing our vocabulary is the way to go about making these changes. Maybe the Professional Association of Teachers needs to start thinking more about what teachers are doing and less about what words they are saying.

Science vs. History

2006-08-06T10:59:00.000-07:00

Reading this weeks ask a blogger question on ScienceBlogs about good science in movies reminded me of the first time I saw the X-Files movie. I was in college and saw it with my girlfriend at the time. I was (and still am) a science nerd and she was (and may still be, for all I know) a history nerd. Afterwards I complained about the science in the movie (corn being pollinated by bees? pollen entering a person through a bee sting?) and told her that, as a scientist, it offended me. She laughed at me and told me that there was no way that I should be bothered by bad science in a movie. Later, it came to be known that she was offended by movies that are historically inaccurate. This, of course, caused me great annoyance.

What the whole thing came down to was a question of importance. It is important to accurately represent the life of an individual? Is it offensive for a movie about George Washington (for example), to show things he didn't do or say? Who is offended by this? His family, generations removed? The general public? How about science? Who is offended by bad science? Just scientists?

It is more harmful for the public to be misinformed about science or history? Or, does it matter at all?

Landis disappoints

2006-08-05T13:35:00.000-07:00

Even as a pretty big sports fan, I generally couldn't care less about cycling. It just doesn't do much for me (I think of it very much like NASCAR, though I don't think the two have very many overlapping fans). I followed Armstrong's wins, but pretty much only because it was unavoidable.

That all being said, it is pretty disappointing that Floyd Landis is a cheater. I grew up watching sports. John Elway was a true hero to me. Not to be overly dramatic or anything, but I think that everytime we have one of these big sports scandals, it changes how I remember being a kid and looking up to all of these sports players.

I miss not having to be so cynical about the world. Sports players are all cheating. Politicans are more worried about re-election than they are about doing what is best for this country. Large corporations are putting family-run shops out of business. The environment is going to hell because people are so divided along party lines that they can't think for themselves.

Things were just so much simpler when I was a kid.

Fun Friday

2006-08-04T06:46:00.000-07:00

Yet another Friday rolls around. I think we will be spending our afternoon/evening out at a local free music performance. I certainly hope the weather cools off by then.

My fun for today is this blog. It hasn't been updated in a while, I think the author is out of town. The archives are great, though.

Frustration

2006-08-02T11:43:00.000-07:00

It will be a short post today. I was planning on saying a word or two about the Board of Education votes in Kansas yesterday. However, I might have to put that off until yesterday.

Earlier today I had grand plans for the birthday of my wife. However, my attempts to cover up my plans just resulted in a big argument and a complete distruction of my plans.

Now I am worse off than if I had forgotten about her birthday entirely. What I get for trying, I suppose.

Another year looms

2006-08-01T11:01:00.000-07:00

The pacing guides for my math classes arrived via email today. This will be my second year teaching and I am looking forward to having been through the material once already. Thankfully, the pacing guides look almost idential to what I worked with last year. There are some additions to the Algebra tools, but nothing too fundamental.

All in all, I think this will be a fundamental year for me in my career as a teacher. Everyone always talks about how hard the first year is. It certainly wasn't easy, but I think this year will give me a better idea of whether or not this is something I can do long-term. Last year everything was new and something of an adventure. This will be my first real experience at teaching something _again_. If I teach for many years, there will rarely be another year like my first. However, there will probably be many more like my second.

If there are any teachers that read this (I know, no one actually reads this, but somehow it makes this seem more worthwhile if I ask questions of a vague, unknown reader), would you agree with my feelings here?

Slow day

2006-07-31T17:26:00.000-07:00

It has been a pretty slow day and not too much to talk about around here. All of the blogs are buzzing about Mel Gibson's anti-semetic tirade and now his admission to rehab. Even given my usual distaste for all of the celeb gossip, I really don't see all of the noise about this. I mean, is anyone surprised? His comments about his Jesus movie made his feelings about Jews pretty clear. Like father, like son, right?

Anyway. Less than a month until students are back and I might have something worth talking about (of course, I also won't have time to write about it, either). Until then, I guess I will keep reading, watching pointless TV (CSI is on at the moment) and just relaxing on the sofa.

Good times.

Friday fun

2006-07-28T07:06:00.000-07:00

I like to keep Fridays lighter than the boring political stuff I have been doing here. So, here is my favorite optical illusion:

In the above picture, square A and square B are the exact same color. If you don't believe me, I can dig up the link with proof (of course, no one reads this, so I don't have to worry about that).

Also, even though it is Friday, I can't help but note that it is nice to see that our fearless leader is fully focused on the dangerous situation in the Middle East.

Yates and news

2006-07-27T10:12:00.000-07:00

There was a lot in the news yesterday worth commenting on, but to me the biggest was the verdict in the Andrea Yates trial. I don't claim to be a big follower of all of the details in this case, but I was pleased to see the Texas jury recognized her mental illness and the role it played in her actions. I know that there are a lot of people out there who feel that she "got away with it" and that there "needs to be justice for those kids" and many other things. A conversation I had with someone upset about the verdict really made it clear to me how different my view of our justice system is compared to some other people's. Although I understand the idea that Yates needs to be punished, I personally believe that our justice system should be designed to protect the public from dangerous people, not just to make people sit in the corner when they have done something wrong. Yates did something terrible, but was also not in her right mind when she did so. How do you justify punishing someone for something that happened essentially outside their control? Yates will most likely spend the rest of her life in a state institution. The person that probably deserves to be in prision is her ex-husband. He knew that Yates was sick, and made the decision not to do anything about it (other than telling her to "pray for help"). He chose to put his children in a dangerous situation. Yet he is the one walking free.

The other major news is the fact that the Senate passed the interstate abortion notification bill. Basically, it would make it a crime for someone to take a child across state lines to avoid parental notification laws. Personally, I can say that this law will never effect my (currently non-existent) daughter, since I would support her in any decision she makes about her life. Of course, this laws was not designed to help me, as a liberal parent, or my daughter. It seems designed to help the abusive, controlling parent who refuses to respect the decisions of their children. The enforcement of this law would be difficult, since most people are not going to admit their reasons for crossing the state line. I think that most people recognize this at just another step in the Red's attempt to push Roe v. Wade out of the lawbooks. It is disappointing, but certainly not surprising. Eventually, all of this will end up before the SCOTUS, and it will be settled, at least for a few years. When I am honest with myself, I admit that I think that Roe v. Wade may be overturned. I can only hope that it will become a rallying point for the left, just as the current status of Roe v. Wade has been for the conservative right. I just hope that too many young women don't have to die in the meantime.

Trying to make sense of everything

2006-07-26T08:35:00.000-07:00

I was out of town with very little internet access for two weeks. Upon returning home I learned that the two big things I had missed was a national heat wave and the Middle East continuing to slide into complete disaster. I have spent quite a bit of time trying to catch myself up on the Israel/Hezbollah conflict and I must admit that I find myself in an emotional bind.

Even though I consider myself an athiest (though for the sake of clarity I often just refer to myself as a godless liberal), I was raised Jewish and was conditioned from a young age to be pro-Israel. That, along with the fact that I consider Hezbollah to be a terrorist organization, makes my gut reaction to the conflict pretty obvious. However, I find myself being really bothered by the strength of the Israeli repsonse. I understand that they feel they have to respond strongly. There are a lot of anti-Israel groups in the Middle East and if Hezbollah survives this without any major damages, they will be encouraged to carry out their own attacks. But, at what point do the collateral damages add up to too high a price? I wish I knew a good answer.

I suppose this will potentially be a good talking point in class this fall, though hopefully things will calm down at least a bit by then. The conflict in Iraq was something that students often wanted to discuss, but seemed unable to talk about it in unbiased terms (basically, students from Red families just talked about how Bush was saving the world, students from Blue families just talked about how Bush was destroying the world and there was no ground in between). At least the Israel/Hezbollah conflict does not cut so evenly along Red/Blue lines and my students might actually have to think about the issues and form their own opinions. I guess it makes me feel better as an educator if I can use these terrible world events to help my students learn. Last year the first day of the water unit I had to teach (teaching about water is about a boring as learning about water) was the day Katrina hit. Katrina was, of course, a horrible disaster. It did, however, give me something to talk about and get a classroom discussion going. I am sure all of those NO residents feel it was a worthwhile trade ...

Starting up

2006-07-25T13:03:00.000-07:00

I don't really know what I am doing here, other than I might as well jump on the blogging bandwaggon. I don't think anyone will ever read this, so I guess it really doesn't matter that much anyways...

I am starting my second year at a middle school math and science teacher. I am a godless liberal, though I do my best to keep my politics to myself while in the classroom. I am often appalled by the current state of science education in this country, as well as the power the religous-right seems to have over so many. Since I cannot speak out when it bother me the most, I hope to be able to use this blog as something of an outlet.

I guess a reader here (which will pretty much just me) can expect to see my thoughts on teaching, science, the evolution/creation debate, politics, and anything else that happens to wander across my desk.