Reading and the Common Core

A Must Read!

I just finished Empty by Suzanne Weyn.  Wow!  It was fantastic.  I recommend it to EVERYONE!  It is about running out of oil and what will happen to the U.S. when that happens.  I am going to use it with my class next year!

What are you reading?

I just finished the book The Eleventh Plague and I have to say I was a little disappointed.  All the reviews for it claimed that it was on the same level as The Hunger Games, but it was definitely not.  I am not saying that it was awful, it just didn't have the same level of excitement.  I would recommend it to my students because I do think that it will interest them, but I won't build it up to be like The Hunger Games. 
It is about a young boy named Stephen who loses his family and has to make it in a world that was devastated by war and disease.  It is definitely futuristic and somewhat dystopian.  It was easy to read and the story line isn't that complicated so even my reluctant readers will be able to follow and enjoy. 

I just started Empty.  This book seems like it might be a bit more interesting.  It is set in the U.S. in the future when gas prices are $20 or more a gallon.  Not too hard to imagine, yes?  I think it will be an easy read also. 

I just ordered 10 books from Scholastic that I think my class will enjoy.  Some of my students have already read The Bar Code Tattoo so I ordered the sequel.  I hope it is as good as the first book.  I have already read The Maze Runner Trilogy and loved it so I ordered the books for my classroom.  I also ordered a few other titles that follow the same dystopian theme.  This is what seems to hold my students' interest.  As long as they are reading I am HAPPY!

First grade summer fun!

You really need to hop over to Teacher Tams blog to check out her Common Core packet for first grade!  I have a friend who teaches first grade and I know she will love it.  What wonderful ideas!  You could even start to use it now if you are running out of great ideas to finish the school year!! 
http://teachertamseducationaladventures.blogspot.com/2012/04/first-grade-common-core-based-summer.html

Please read to the end!

Wow, I haven't posted for awhile again!!!  I just don't seem to have enough time in a day to keep this up to date.  I am envious of those who religiously update daily and are always adding pictures, etc.

I have been trying to get everything done with my class before the end of the quarter.  Friday was it, and some of my kids still did not finish all their required work.  By this time in sixth grade they should know time management.  Plus, I am on them constantly!  I was happy with some of the work that came in, but that was from the students that I expected to do well.  I had one student out all week so I just have to figure her grades on what she already had in, which wasn't much and wasn't done well.  Just when I think I am making progress with this group, something like this happens and I wonder if ANYTHING I do makes a difference. 

I was also working on a proposal for interactive whiteboards for our school.  An anonymous donor wants to donate money so that we can purchase some and I had to do the research to find the best boards that would do what we wanted them to do.  On top of that, I had to research what we needed to replace our server since it is archaic and won't survive to do the job we need it to do if we get these whiteboards.  Mind you, I am not the tech person, just a plain, old, sixth grade teacher so all of this was Greek to me!  With the help of my husband, a friend of his who is an IT person, the people at CDW and the Poly Vision rep, I finally got it all together and submitted the proposal on Friday.  Now we just wait to see if the donor approves and gives us the money. 

My next job is trying to find ways to raise tons of money for our school.  You see, we are a small Catholic school in a very depressed community and many of our parents cannot pay full tuition.  Our public school system is overcrowded and rife with problems.  Our parents want to have their children at our school because we offer a safe environment and a better education.  Many of our students are first generation Mexican Americans whose parents want better for them they what they have had.  They are willing to sacrifice, but they can barely put food on the table much less pay tuition.  It is not uncommon to find more than one family living in the same house because they just can't afford anything else. 

Like everywhere, our school has fallen on big financial woes.  The parish can't/won't support the school at the amount of money that we need and the archdiocese doesn't look kindly on giving out big loans.  If we don't find a source of money, and soon, our little school will be closed and these children will have nowhere to go except the public school system.  Our parents don't want that.  Students are drafted into gangs as early as 4th grade.  It is just not a good environment to be in.  So, I am wracking my brain trying to figure out to whom I can plead our case. 

It is sad that we can't apply for so many of the grants that are available for education because we are a Catholic school.  We accept students of all denominations.  We even have Hindu and Jewish students in our school.  We don't discriminate against anyone and we offer a better product than the public school on MUCH less money.  Our students graduate and go on to the public high school far ahead of their public school peers.  Most of our students enter honors classes.  This is the advantage that our parents want for their children, yet without help, it might not be available for much longer. 

So if anyone out there has any great ideas, I'd appreciate it if you would share them with me.  If anyone would like to send donations to our school, they can be sent to:
St. Joseph Elementary School
118 Lincoln Ave.
Round Lake, IL  60073

Thanks to anyone who can give us any support or advice.

Are You Kidding Me????

Ok, so we are reading The Hunger Games in class.  When we started the book, I emphasized how important it was that NO ONE read ahead.  We are using this novel as our teaching novel and since it has so much symbolism and so many themes interspersed in it, I explained to the students that we needed to walk through it together.  It also has quite a bit of difficult vocabulary, so I need to make sure they understand the words to fully understand the novel. 
Anyway, every child in the room was fully aware of my instructions.  Now, we have readers workshop so they have lots and lots of time to read ANYTHING they would like to read, they just can't read ahead in The Hunger Games.  Seems simple enough, right?

Well, this past week, I found out that 7 of my students decided to finish the novel, brag about it to their classmates, yet sit in class and act as though they hadn't gone ahead at all.  I wondered why some of these same students were so spot on with certain answers and predictions.  Well, come to find out it was because they did EXACTLY  what I told them NOT  to do. 

Ok, so I call them out on it.  First, I called them out on the fact that when I had asked them point blank, if they had read ahead, they told me no.  That is what is called a LIE.  There is no other way around it, they lied to me.  Secondly, I called them out on the fact that they had an unfair advantage over the students who had not read ahead.  They could make better predictions (of course they could, they already knew what would happen) and could design better responses to essay questions since they knew exactly what was going to happen next.  (like I said, I wondered about their ability to be so spot on with their responses)  To me, when you have an unfair advantage over another student, that is cheating. 
So, because they decided to do EXACTLY what I instructed them not to do, and because they lied about it, I told them they didn't need me.  They were obviously way ahead of everyone else so they could take the final test on Monday and then I would give them other reading assignments because I wouldn't want to bore them with going through the novel again. 
I also told them that they needed to write an explanation of what they had done and why it was wrong and have their parents sign it.  Silly me, I figured parents would want to know that their child disobeyed their teacher and lied about it. 

Now the good part!  I get an email from a parent upset that I called their son out on this.  First they said that he didn't know he wasn't supposed to read ahead, which is a bold faced LIE, then they said they told him it was ok to read ahead, just don't tell anyone.  Well, if it was ok, and you weren't doing something you knew you shouldn't be doing, why not tell people?  These people are actually encouraging their child to NOT listen to the teacher, disregard what she says and lie about it.  To me, doing something you know you aren't supposed to do and then not saying anything about it, is tantamount to lieing.  They actually think this is ok.  Then they are trying to shift the blame to me. 
They say they can't understand why I would punish a child for reading.  I AM NOT PUNISHING A CHILD FOR READING!!!  I am giving a CONSEQUENCE TO A CHILD FOR DISREGARDING MY EXPLICIT INSTRUCTIONS!  I do nothing but encourage reading in my class.  I buy books out of my own money, I have book talks to get kids excited about books, I obtain for my students any books they show interest in reading.  I have nearly killed myself this year trying to get this group excited about anything.  And these parents have the gall to try to turn this situation around on me. 

In their email to me, they put it in such a way that they would give me a chance to tell my side of the story.  HA!  They don't want to hear anything, they just want their son to not be made to deal with the consequences of his actions.  It is not like I am giving detentions or anything.  All I am doing is giving them the same test all the other students will take when we finish the novel, just earlier than the rest of the class.  After all, they are done with the novel so they should be ready for the test.  AND, I can't very well have them continue with the activities that we are doing as a class with the novel because they already know what it going to happen, so I am giving them alternate reading assignments.  I still want them to be learning, they just have to do it with a different piece of work.  IN FACT, I am actually making MORE work for myself by having to come up with different lessons for these students. 

But, I am the bad guy here.  When will parents ever learn that making excuses for your child will NOT  help them in the future????

Luckily, my principal knows all about what occurred and how I handled it, so when this crazy parent contacts her she won't be caught off guard.  I just hate that she has to deal with it right now.  She has some serious health issues and she doesn't need any more stress. 

Anyone out there have CRAZY parents to deal with besides me?  I bet that is a silly question!  What teacher has not had at least one parent who was difficult, right?

RTI? Really?

Ok, so I recommend a student for testing from the public school system (I teach in a Catholic school) and they complete the testing (they had to because the parents wrote a letter so by law they are required to do at least this much).  We have a meeting and the test results show that the child has a deficit in working memory and processing speed.  Both of these scores, plus the fact that the child has extreme difficulty in the classroom, coupled with the fact that this child has had these same learning issues since preschool, should indicate to anyone with half a brain, that this child needs special services.  Now mind you, I have already been working with the child in the classroom, have made accomodations for him, work with him before school and the parents work with him at home.  He is still behind and having difficulty learning and achieving at the sixth grade level. 
So back to my original statement.  The child is tested and we meet to discuss eligibility.  The public school system decides that he doesn't qualify because we didn't complete all the RTI interventions they want completed.  It doesn't matter that all the research on working memory shows that the traditional RTI interventions don't work with children with working memory deficits, all they do is delay the services the child does need.  The public school system won't budge.

So the parents and I go back and do more research, all the while still helping this child who struggles in the classroom.  We go back for a second meeting and this is where it gets interesting.  Wait, let me first tell you what transpired in the weeks before this second meeting. 

The psychologist (who, by the way, acted very unprofessional during the initial meeting, leaving the room crying because she felt she was being "attacked,"  we were simply asking questions about the results.)  was supposed to get the results of the testing to the parents within 3 days of the meeting.  She also promised this mother that she would get a whole list of different interventions that we could do with the child to her and me so that we could try a different approach with the child.  Well, days turned into weeks and the mother received nothing.  The psychologist had forgotten to get the eligibility form signed at the meeting so she dropped it by the school and asked me to have the parents sign it and let her know when they did so she could pick it up.  This was 3 days after the meeting.  She could have dropped off the test results and the interventions at this time so I could deliver them to the parents, but she didn't.  Anyway, I let the mom know that I have this paper for her to sign and she decides that she will sign it when she receives the paperwork promised.  Seems fair to me.  So every few days I get an email from the psychologist asking if the paper has been signed.  I just respond no.  I did ask, after about 10 days, if she had the paperwork ready for the parents and she responded, "working on it."  So after 20 days, the mom has had enough.  She sends an email to the psychologist complaining that she has no results, no promised list of interventions, nothing.  She writes her email as a mom who is desperately trying to get help for her child.  The psychologist calls her, angry and yelling so the mom tells her that they are both angry and they won't get anywhere this way so she is going to hang up.  Which she does.  The psychologist calls back!  The mom doesn't answer because she knows this will go nowhere.  So the psychologist calls the husband at work and cries to him (yes, literally cries) that his wife yelled at him, etc. etc. etc.  Now you tell me, what professional does this????  Who pits a husband against a wife???? 

Ok, so now onto the second meeting.  Only the head of the special education services comes to the meeting.  The parents and I have done our research and come prepared to this meeting.  The mom has her information all typed out, with documents marked and attached, to contest the eligibility decision.  She gives us all a copy and the public school man doesn't even look at it.  The mom starts to go through everything step by step and he just nods and smiles.  Adding a few things here and there.  Finally, when the mom is so frustrated that nothing is happening, no discussion, nothing, she pleads, with tears in her eyes, and says to the guy, how would you feel if this were you son or grandson, wouldn't you want help for them.  This man from the public school YELLS  at this poor woman.  Tells her she has crossed the line and how dare she do that and that her email to the psychologist had crossed the line and that the psychologist is trying to have a baby and is having difficulty and how dare she make this personal. 

Are you shocked now???  Of course this is personal, it is about the mother's child.  All she wants is help.  She didn't say anything wrong, she was pleading with this man to give her child the help he needs.  He had no right to act the way he did and neither did the psychologist.  But they turned it around on this mother and left the meeting making her feel defeated, with nowhere to turn.  This is what we deal with every time we try to get help for our kids.  The same kids whose parents pay taxes to the public school system yet don't tax the system by putting their kids in the schools.  Why can't they get the services they need???

I have asked teachers in different public school systems how they feel about this whole RTI policy now mandated by our state and they all respond that they think all it does is delay the services for the children who really need them.  Sure it helps some, but those who need special services just have to run through a maze for a year or longer before they really get the help they need.  Why is this allowed to happen??? 

How do the rest of you feel about RTI?  Do you think it truly benefits the students or is it just a way for the states to save some money but keeping kids out of special ed.????

And anyone out there from a private school, how does your public school system deal with the kids you refer for services??  Can anyone relate to my nightmare?????