Positively Persistent Teach

l0ts0fhugs: I just graduated from the University of Hawaii at...

Mon, 28 May 2012 21:41:20 -0400

I just graduated from the University of Hawaii at Manoa with a Bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education (qualified to teach both Special Education and General Education). I’ve been a student teacher for two years in the state of Hawaii.

So, as to my knowledge, this is how it is right now. There’s been a hiring freeze (see memo), and what’s worse is that they seem to be planning to fill in those vacant spots with Teach for America people. Now, I don’t mean to be discriminative, or anything. But you think with the two years I’ve done student teaching in Hawaii (a place with a variety of cultures) would mean something. At least make us a little more hire-able than outside agencies that may not understand the culture.

Help me understand this, or better yet, help me answer this question: Is this fair? Does this even make sense?

shortformblog: After The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel endorsed...

Mon, 28 May 2012 21:37:55 -0400

shortformblog:

After The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel endorsed Scott Walker in his recall campaign, readers responded in kind, filling up an entire page with letters criticizing the decision. You can read them here. (ht Patch’s Recall Central, via Arena of the Unwell)

My parents get here on Saturday.

Mon, 28 May 2012 21:37:22 -0400

These Lesson Plans

Mon, 28 May 2012 21:30:13 -0400

kquizzo:

ohmuffins:

iamlittlei:

can write themselves. I’m tired from my vacation and I will figure something out in the morning, as usual.

TWINS.

Triplets.

Ours are due at noon on Friday. Which drives me nuts, but also allows me to enjoy weekends free of planning.

Breaking the news

Mon, 28 May 2012 20:40:00 -0400

saravee:

I just checked my staff email for updates on the situation concerning the death of a student this weekend. Our principal wrote that he would like all teachers to explain to their first hours what happened and identify students who need support. My co has a personal day tomorrow, so this will be my responsibility.

Any teacherly advice for how I should handle this is vastly appreciated.

There are two other teachers who faced similar situations — Detroitsomething has a friend whose student passed away and the other one is completely escaping me. I know the other one was trying to collect resources — I wish I could remember the tumblr name.

It is a good thing I don't have a physical therapy appointment this week, because I have bad sunburn on the top of my feet and knees.

Mon, 28 May 2012 17:06:15 -0400

Money.

Mon, 28 May 2012 16:57:00 -0400

I am financially stable, so none of this is really rocking the boat. I’m just a tad annoyed and need to vent.

We were told we were being given book bags for our kids at the end of the year. The kids were supposed to get several books, notebooks, scissors, glue, crayons, etc. I bought an extra book from Scholastic for each of my students with my own money (they were under a dollar each and it was something I wanted to do). We were also supposed to stick the kids Poem Journals, spare clothing, etc. in the bags.

Very close to the end of the year, we find out surprise! The kids aren’t getting most of that stuff including the book bags. They are getting magnetic letters ( the same one the dollar store sells, and I know most of my students already have them). They are getting some books, just not the ones they were originally going to have.

Most of my students walk to and from school, and it wouldn’t all fit in a grocery bag. I thought for some reason there was a place that sold large gift bags 2 for 1. Not so. I bought 17 for a dollar each today. I probably wouldn’t have bought the Scholastic books if I had known I had to buy these bags.

On top of that, my team and I are responsible for purchasing all the supplies for graduation. We did have a budget, but I spent that money on things we really needed in the classroom (art supplies, books on tape, more glue sticks, rhyming games, etc). So I’ve spent about $20 on trail mix supplies, plus $12 on utensils for the trail mix and bags, plus $18 on the cake, plus $8 on boxes to pack on my room (I’m moving again, so the boxes I do have are being used for that).

It is not that my kids don’t deserve it, or that I don’t spend money on them throughout the year. I just didn’t realize I’d be needing to spend money at the very end of the year, and it is money that I really wish I could be spending on myself.

Like I said, not wrecking me financially, it is just I’ve already spent so much this year.

thedailyfeed: This Memorial Day, we took a look back at how the...

Mon, 28 May 2012 11:24:22 -0400

thedailyfeed:

This Memorial Day, we took a look back at how the U.S. soldier has evolved over the years. Did you know camouflage wasn’t introduced until the end of World War II?

Lesson Learned #9

Mon, 28 May 2012 11:12:21 -0400

cjspoolstra:

In class, if you don’t know the answer, make one up. With confidence.

Which is why Class 10F now thinks that the District of Columbia was named after Columbia, the man who bartered the compromise between Virginia and Maryland for the location of the capital.

Somehow Columbus also got thrown into that conversation… He did sail from Spain, right??

Absolutely not. You do NOT make up an answer. You make it an opportunity to show how to look something up, say you’ll come back to that question later, or offer a challenge for them to find the answer!

Hey Jude - Illustrated Lyrics by Stefano Agabio

Sun, 27 May 2012 22:18:42 -0400

Hey Jude - Illustrated Lyrics

by Stefano Agabio

blueandbluer: bartyjoonyah: thatssirgwainetoyou: When I say I...

Sun, 27 May 2012 21:45:55 -0400

blueandbluer:

bartyjoonyah:

thatssirgwainetoyou:

When I say I love British accents I actually mean BRITISH. Like in Scottish and Irish and so on and on. So I know the freaking difference and I still like those fabulous accents. There.

^THIS. THANK YOU.

I’ve never heard a British accent I haven’t liked, from ANY region.

Also if you want to make that point, everyone referred to my American accent while I was there, yet the U.S. is huge and has many differences even within the same state.

I'm a little sun burned, but so happy I went to the beach!

Sun, 27 May 2012 21:24:28 -0400

Remember what Memorial Day is About -- Give a Moment, a Dollar, a Thought

Sun, 27 May 2012 21:20:55 -0400

jekoh:

Military.com has a whole list of organizations that allow you to communicate with soldiers, volunteer, or donate — and a quick Google search gives hundreds more options for ‘adopting’ US soldiers who are deployed or wounded and recovering.

Left off this list is Adopt A U.S. Soldier.

I have adopted an entire company plus several other service members through this site and am one of the moderators of the forum. :-)

Fascinating and bizarre classes offered.

Sun, 27 May 2012 17:12:09 -0400

lickystickypickywe:

Sociology of Fame and Lady Gaga
University of South Carolina: No, you won’t get extra credit for wearing sirloin to class. As the syllabus warns, “This is not a course in Lady Gaga but in sociology; and it is not a course about Lady Gaga as much as about the culture of the fame as exemplified by the career of Lady Gaga. There will be no PowerPoint presentations in this class nor any music or videos.”

“Oh, Look, a Chicken!” Embracing Distraction as a Way of Knowing
Belmont University: “Oh, look, a Chicken”….This course will pursue ways of knowing through embracing [little ants, carrying a morsel of food across the table] what it means to be a distracted [I could sure enjoy a peanut butter sandwich right now] learner as well as [OMG—I get to go to the beach this summer] developing an awareness [I need to trim my fingernails] of one’s senses. The instructor teaches in the school of music, [do I hear water dripping?] so there will be an element related to that woven [spiders are amazing] into the course. [oh, it’s the fish tank behind me] Those registering for this section may even learn to juggle [I’ll be right down, I just have to finish this…what was I working on?].

Invented Languages: Klingon and Beyond
University of Texas at Austin: The class explores the Star Trek language and Esperanto, among others.

The Phallus
Occidental College: Topics include the signification of the phallus, the relation of the phallus to masculinity, femininity, genital organs and the fetish, the whiteness of the phallus, and the lesbian phallus.

The Textual Appeal of Tupac Shakur
University of Washington: Though Tupac has been gone for nearly 15 years, he lives on at U-Dub. The course “explores the philosophical, historical and literary influences of the late rapper and activist, Tupac Shakur.”

more

I would be interested in the Tupac Shakur one.

Photo

Sun, 27 May 2012 17:06:28 -0400

Heading to the beach!

Sun, 27 May 2012 12:28:18 -0400

With my only friend here that is not a teacher or married to one of my teacher friends.

Blog Round-Up: Photographs « Teaching with the Library of Congress

Sun, 27 May 2012 12:25:58 -0400

Blog Round-Up: Photographs « Teaching with the Library of Congress:

This is a guest post from Johnathan Abreu of the Library of Congress.

Do you use photographs in the classroom? Here are some great resources for you from the Library of Congress.

As a medium, the photograph is relatively young. Nonetheless, photographs have captured key moments and events in history. The Library of Congress has more than a million digitized photographs available through the Prints and Photographs catalog. Since it’s easy to get lost in such a vast collection, we’ve put together a few helpful resources on using photographs in the classroom and analyzing them with students. More than just capturing an event, a photograph has much to say about the artist’s point of view and the time in which it was captured.

In Taking a Closer Look at Prints and Photographs, Danna Bell-Russel begins a discussion on information literacy as it applies to photographs. This post provides useful ideas on how to analyze photographs with students and discern details such as false captions which can be misleading if unnoticed.

Library of Congress shares lots of ideas for using their resources in the classroom. This is one thing I wish I had a chance to use.

Child-care advocates fear cuts in state funding - News - The Charleston Gazette - West Virginia News and Sports -

Sun, 27 May 2012 12:07:20 -0400

Child-care advocates fear cuts in state funding - News - The Charleston Gazette - West Virginia News and Sports -

Whoever sent me a message in my ask box, I didn't get it. Sorry, tumblr ate it.

Sat, 26 May 2012 23:43:44 -0400

Please use Fan Mail.

The Power of Tumblr. The Beauty of Strangers.

Sat, 26 May 2012 23:37:15 -0400

detroitsomething:

My name is Ray Stoeser. I am a high school teacher living and working in Detroit. Below is a testament to the power of Tumblr and social networking. Most importantly, it is about how 554 complete strangers helped change the lives of my Detroit students.

The Power of Tumblr. The Beauty of Strangers.

Read More

I am so proud of our Community.

Tumblr gets it done.

I really want to thank Ray for all he has been doing as a teacher, because people probably don’t realize how much he puts into it. I also want to thank him because this opportunity to donate, and seeing how the community responded reminded me of how awesome we are when we work together to for positive projects.

In the coming months, I hope to focus more on the positive on this blog and the reasons I started this tumblr in the first place.

Thanks Ray for the reminder.

The rest of you? I hope Ray’s story inspires you. I hope you will reach out to this community if you need help whether it is funds, ideas, or advice.

Going to bed with a big smile tonight.