Holy cow. I have been reviewing study materials this week for an additional subject area exam I took this afternoon. It is in my area of passion. I have more than one college degree associated with the subject. I have taken class after class on how to teach it. I am in the subject classes daily at the high school. I’m well-read and associate with others who are well-read in the subject.
Even so, I came out of the exam feeling like a simpleton. Since there was an essay involved, I did not get my score immediately and have to wait about three weeks for the results. If I did not pass, I cannot re-take the exam for at least 31 days, not to mention that it was pricey to take it in the first place.
*sigh*
I know the high school is going to be thinking about new hires soon. I need to get my little resume packet together and was hoping I could say with all honesty that all of my desired certifications were up and running.
Cross your fingers for me, or better yet say a pray. Of course, that prayer is not for me to do well on the test, since what is done is done. Those prayers would be for my wrecked nerves!
When I was growing up in Virginia, we had fire drills in school. However, I do not remember ever having air raid drills, or lockdown drills, or tornado drills. It was fire drills, and that was it.
Here in Florida, we have all kinds of drills in the schools. This week all of the schools in the district had tornado drills, for example. Face-down on the floor, knees up under your chest, hands up covering the back of your next. It seemed oddly pointless since the drill happened while I was in a classroom with a full wall of windows.
Even so, we are training our kids to understand the right way to react in the face of a crisis – be it dangerous weather or gunfire on school grounds. It’s practical and it’s absolutely part of educating our children as they head into a society that seems to modernize at a quicker and quicker rate each year.
I’m all for a world that celebrates smart – smart women, smart girls, smart choices. Seriously, I have absolutely no use for the perpetuation of the idea of females as helpless or less intelligent. Smart girls rock!
More than ever, our young girls are faced with a host of pressures placed on them by our society. There is pressure to be thin, to always have a boyfriend, to dress the “right” way. The pressure is all but pounding their collective self esteem into the ground. Believe me; I see it all the time at the high school. All these girls want to reassured that who they already are is absolutely perfect.
Amy Poehler’s new web-show, Smart Girls at the Party, is a much-needed bright spot in a world where young girls struggle to find themselves amidst so much pressure. The show shines a spotlight on various young girls with cool talents, inspiring aspirations, and unique achievements. I’m loving Care Bears on Fire – a trio of rockin’ 12-year-olds. There’s no doubt that girls who understand the sheer genius of the Ramones are about as smart as smart can be.
I want to urge you to get the word out about Smart Girls at the Party. Share an episode with a girl in your own life. These are real girls doing cool things, just living life and loving who they are. There is such a feeling of power, esteem and positivity in each episode. Poehler conducts her interviews with the same wry wit we’re all used to seeing on Saturday Night Live’s Weekend Update – but this time she injects an appropriate level of seriousness and respect.
My five-year-old is sitting on my lap, right now, entranced. We have watched at least six episodes together already. It’s some pretty awesome together time.
You can even get your own widget to put on your own blog, or your Myspace and Facebook. The widget is pretty cool. You can play a pretty much continuous stream of episodes right in your own space. It doesn’t matter what platform you want to use – the widget probably has it all set up for you. Take a look!
p.s. Take a look at some of the Barbie commercials that run between episodes. I had that Barbie Dream House with three stories and the elevator! I don’t care what anyone says, Barbie is what you make her. My Barbies were always strong, confident, and breaking out of the traditional roles of women. My Barbies rocked!
Florida is an absolute wealth of things to do. Of course, if you are vacationing there you are probably thinking more along the lines of week-long excursions and major attractions. Living here, though, is all about the amazing day-trips we have at our fingertips all year ‘round.
The new exhibit at the Orlando Science Center is Grossology. It premiers January 31, 2009
Grossology is actually a phenomenon that started with the book by Sylvia Branzei called Grossology: The Science of Really Gross Things! We use it in the school, because the kids absolutely love it. It’s engaging, interesting, hilarious, and genuinely informative. That book led to several others in the Grossology series.
Now, you can experience Grossology hands-on with Grossology: The (Impolite) Science of the Human Body at the Orlando Science Center. This is actually the second Grossology exhibit at the Center. Adults and children alike were delighted with Animal Grossology in 2006.Other area attractions might have spinning teacups and pirate rides, but where else can you go down a 30-foot long slide that travels through a 3-D model of the digestive system? How cool is that?
Grossology Exhibit – Orlando Science Center
The Center is open Sunday – Tuesday: 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. and
Thursday – Saturday: 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. You can order your tickets online, or call 888.OSC.4FUN for more information.
A lot of the conversations I have with the other teachers at the high school are about college plans for the kids. I suppose that coming from a home where it was always just assumed that I would go straight from high school to college; it feels odd to me how many kids I interact with now are not planning to go to college. In fact, when I think back to the people I went to high school with, most were college bound. Those who were not were almost always involved in a vocational program during high school.
Our kids here in the district do have access to various vo-tech programs. However, so many of them are just drudging through high school, doing just enough to pass from one grade to the next. If you have the pleasure of having the time to sit down with them and talk about the plans they have for after college, so very many of them have just not given it much thought. They are very focused on graduating their plan ends there. Well, ends might be the wrong word. What I mean is that the days after graduation are just a grey fog of generalization right now.
Yes, there are those who have already been accepted to colleges or are at least interested in thinking about their college plans. There are many who are looking at a career in the military. There are others who have vague plans about attending a vocational program after high school.
I personally do not think our kids have enough access to technical and vocational school programs during high school. Yes, the opportunities are absolutely there after high school, but so many of them could get a head start if they were involved in one of the programs within the district that they could be working on right now. And, since it would be part of the public school system, it would not cost them anything to get that head start.
I was looking over an online technical and vocational school guide and it gave me a lot of hope for so may of the kids I teach. Many of the careers I saw kids writing about for their senior research papers are careers they can have access to via technical programs, rather than a traditional 4-year college. And while I am a fan personally of a traditional college degree, I see so much merit in technical programs that move directly to prepare individuals to work in a specific career area. I’d like to see more of my students take advantage on the training and preparation they offer.
Working at the high school has made me remember why I liked being around academics so much. I’m not saying that my life has been devoid of contact with intellectual people these last several years, but the contact has indeed been scant. Even when I was working at the publishing house and then running the art division for a manufacturing company back before I decided to quit working out side the home to be with my family, I still found myself surrounded by people who were not as enthralled with the concept of ongoing education as me.
Those of you out there that teach at the university level may turn up your noses at the idea that a high school is filled with the intellectual and the very highly educated, and that’s really a shame. While I expected to meet a lot of people who were certainly at least qualified to teach when I started at the high school, I had no idea how many of them would have advanced degrees and be so self motivated when it comes to ongoing education. There is a TRUE love for learning happening at my place of employment, folks.
My headline referenced woman, brainy women to be exact. It is not as though this is a high school comprised only of female educators, but as is the case with most any public school – most of the teachers are women. I work with many of the men, too. One has more advanced degrees than I can count on my fingers. However, it is still the women I witness striving harder to obtain new information every step of the way.
I love being surrounded by brainy women. I used to think that I worked better with men in the workplace. Now I am just looking back at my former jobs and realizing I got along better with the more intellectual people in my offices, and they were generally men. What I see now is that when it comes to those who are learned, academia is the field that appreciated and rewards smart women more than possibly any other field. This is the field where you rarely have to wonder if you lost out on a job you were more qualified for just because the other candidate was a man.
Today was the first day of finals exams for the first semester at the high school. What a crazy day. I am not sure how I feel about the District allowing students in all grades exempt exams. I understand seniors with good grades and attendance being able to do so, but I think it is a reward you need to earn and giving it to just seniors would make it so much more special. Of course, it’s not my call.
We had a staff meeting and they served pizza and brownies. Pizza and Brownies! Are you kidding me? *sigh* I love pizza and brownies, very much so. But, you will all be happy to hear that I was VERY good. I sat and socialized and did not touch a single bite. I snacked on pumpkin seeds throughout the day, so my hunger was in check. I just had to hold back on the sheer desire to eat such yummy food. It’s getting easier as time goes by, and I have to remind myself that in the first month of my diet I lost 17 pounds. Not bad, huh?
My daughter is a Daisy Girl Scout this year. Back when I was her age, we did have Daisy scouts. I had to wait and start scouting when I was a Brownie. These little girls are pretty lucky to have an early start at such an amazing organization.
Anyway, this is the first year Daisy Girl Scouts are allowed to sell Girl Scout Cookies and my daughter and I could not be more thrilled! I think seeing one of my daughter’s friends selling cookies with her troops mate in front of a Blockbuster last year is what got Gigi hooked on the idea of scouting.
When I was selling cookies, I think they were $1.25 a box. Now they are $3.50 a box, but we all have to remember this is a non-profit organization and the cookies raise funds for this very noble institution. I can hardly think of a single person who would pass up a box of Girl Scout Cookies.
Anyway, if any of my local friends who read this blog are up for some cookies, give us a call. We’ll hook you up
Teaching jobs are being cut in my home district every year. It is getting harder and harder to get your foot in the door if you want to teach here. After I got certified to teach, I found that the jobs available were like little Grails. They were close to impossible to attain.
Everyone told me I should sub. That is a great theory. You are supposedly getting classroom time and you can often meet teachers and administrators. You definitely get a taste of whether or not you like any given school. However, I have seen with my own eyes that substitute teaching is glorified babysitting. And, on top of that the students are abusive in their treatment of the subs. Maybe it is different in elementary school, but in the middle and high schools it is one tough gig. In every class I am in, if a sub comes in for the day the students are rude, manipulative, and relentless in their quest to obtain the upper hand.
I have never regretted not subbing. My job might be one step down from full instructional right now, but at least I am a fulltime employee of the district, with the benefits and a pension plan to boot. Plus, I can count on my paycheck. It’s almost like a paid internship. I’m getting more insight into classroom management than I could have ever hoped for. I am getting the opportunity to develop relationships with the student and the students I have not met are at least used to seeing me on campus.
Ideally, a position will open up at my school. If not, I can still say that working in my current capacity has given me more hands-on experience that subbing ever could.
Last summer there was a scramble as teachers who were displaced after school closings in the district looked for new jobs. Many were accommodated by neighboring districts. Many went into lower-paying positions. It was hard times for all.
And now Pinellas County, in the Tampa Bay Area, has announced they are considering more school closing for next school year.
Gulf Beaches Elementary in St. Pete Beach
Kings Highway Elementary in Clearwater
North Ward Elementary in Clearwater
Palm Harbor Elementary in Palm Harbor
Rio Vista Elementary in St. Petersburg
They cite declining enrollment and an even tighter budget as the cause.
Last year, the district considered 10 schools closure, but only three got the axe: Riviera Middle School, South Ward Elementary in Clearwater and Largo Elementary.
As I teach my own daughter to write, I am focusing on helping her develop clear, tidy script. And, it is making me think about how many people I know who have handwriting that is so bad I cannot generally puzzle out what they are writing.
At school, there are kids who hate to write longhand so much that they will do just about anything to gain access to a computer to do their work. Of course, there are those students who are permitted to use a computer as an accommodation, but more often that not the student in question simply hates to write and had atrocious writing.
I had five pages of names I needed to transcribe this afternoon and when I was halfway through the first page I had a shocking realization. These names were not written by students; they were written by teachers. It was shocking how few names I could decipher. It was like trying to get through pages and pages of the worst physician handwriting you can imagine.
Where has the art of penmanship gone? Does it matter to anyone anymore? — aside from the fact that it matters to me?
I had head from a few friends that it was considered one of the better public elementary schools in the north end of the county. It’s not in a particularly bad neighborhood, and the stats show a lot of two-family homes feed the school. Even so, Friday was still a pretty frightening day for everyone at Leila G. Davis Elementary School in Clearwater, Florida.
A LOADED handgun was found in the backpack of a KINDERGARTEN student by a teacher’s assistant.
A loaded handgun in a kindergartner’s backpack.
Wow.
It turns out that the six-year-old found the loaded gun in his grandparents’ bedroom and brought the gun to school to show his friends.
So far, the word is that criminal charges will not be filed. Even so, the school district does have a policy that any child who possesses or exhibits a gun at school will be suspended and recommended for expulsion.
I know a lot of people might keep a loaded handgun in their bedside table, but that is one of those things you need to change once you have a child living in your home. I know when my daughter was born; guns in my hone were moved and stored differently. It seemed a like a no-brainer.
Isn’t there some sort of penalty for the grandparents who have the child living with htem? This seems like the logical thing to me.
I regret that I do not have more time to seek out the wisdom of those around me who have the benefit of having lived many years. I lived in Florida where we are surrounded by the aged. However, my life generally feels too busy to stop and listen.
Last night I was at the library with my daughter. I lost track of her and finally found her having a grand old time with an older man in the DVD section. They were laughing and trading stories and making movie recommendations for one another. When I walked over, he introduced himself and I was gladly invited into the conversation. Mr. Stein is 82, it turns out, and as we stood chatting I heartily appreciated his stories. As we talked about today’s economic crisis, he relayed his own memories of being a child during the Great Depression. He remembered the men on his street who hung themselves after losing jobs, he remembered the people who took jobs digging ditches, only to keel over dead from heat and exhaustion. He remembered the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) and people putting in vegetable gardens. He learned a way of life that lasted all his years, and that he passed to his own children.
We talked also about life up North, day trips to enjoy the Civil War Battlefields, the museums in Washington, DC and cool fall weather.
My daughter has a particular affinity for the elderly. A friend of mine says that it’s a gift. I hope she will glean more wisdom from her interactions with the aged than I have so far.
So, I accepted a job at a high school. I actually got two calls from the county today about job offers, but I passed on the one at the middle school simply because I think the early hours at the high school will benefit me and my daughter in the long run – ample time for afternoon appointments, lots of time for homework, and no rushing home to cook dinner right away.
I started thinking a little more about how I have not really been in a high school setting, aside from some time tutoring about a year and a half ago, since I graduated high school over 20 years ago. 20 years. *gulp*
The posturing, the acne treatments, the need to have just the right shoes and go to all the right parties – those things are so far removed from my life right now that I am sure it will take me some time to get back to where I can see things from a high school kid’s position. Of course, on the other hand I have often admitted that somewhere inside my little head I still feel like I am 18, so getting used to the grind should be pretty easy in the end. One thing that has changed, though, is that I definitely like older guys now,…as in men nearing 40. That’s sure not something that would have struck my fancy back in high school.
I wonder if this new job is going to make me even more sad to miss my reunion this month.
My daughter is really taking off academically. I have had her in preschools for two years where they had an advanced curriculum and lots of structure, but until now she was just not ready to focus on reading, writing, and such.
Two weeks ago I noticed she was showing an extraordinary interest in math. I bought some workbooks so we can work past the stuff they are doing in Kindergarten and she is positively excelling. Math might just be her gig, which makes me pretty happy. Her fther and I were both more geared toward reading and writing. For us, math was something we were good at, but it took some extra work.
This past weekend, though, Gigi broke down and started writing out her full first name. Until now she would just write Gigi, because her real name intimidated here – it has 9 letters. She just suddenly broke through a barrier, though, and announced she is ready to use that name all of the time. She is also spending hours upon hours with a pencil and paper just sitting and sounding out words. Of course, she is using invented spelling, but you can totally tell what she is trying to write. It shows her phonemic awareness in blossoming.
I want to do something special and cool to really keep her fired up about reading and writing. I am thinking about having some personalized pens made for her, since we never see pens or pencils or mugs with her real name on them – it’s just not that common.
*sigh* I love pizza and brownies, very much so. But, you will all be happy to hear that I was VERY good. I sat and socialized and did not touch a single bite. I snacked on pumpkin seeds throughout the day, so my hunger was in check. I just had to hold back on the sheer desire to eat such yummy food. It’s getting easier as time goes by, and I have to remind myself that in the first month of my diet I lost 17 pounds. Not bad, huh?