Technical Difficulties
This morning Max unleashed his tiny fists of fury on my laptop. The result, 20% of my keyboard is no longer functioning. I will be taking a short blogging break while my computer is repaired. In the meantime would anybody like to care for my son until I get over my inappropriate rage?
The Bottom Of The Thought Box
I can’t seem to get my mind focused enough to put together one cohesive blog post. I’ve started four and have finished none of them. As a result I’m just going to combine them into one sort of mish-mash post.
My Tiny Guy
The kids and I ventured across the street yesterday to visit our neighbor. Their little boy is 18 months old. As we stood their chatting we both could not help but notice that our sons were the EXACT same size (as a matter of fact her son had at least 8 lbs on Max). This means my 31 month old son is the same size as an 18 month old. In a panic I called the doctor who assured me that since January Max has grown 2 inches and based on his growth trend is just fine. And yet….he’s short. Because my kids have never attended school I don’t normally see them in context with other children and although I always knew Max wasn’t particularly big for his size his “petite stature” didn’t fully hit me until yesterday.
Bad Food
I started putting together a list of foods that I find gross and will never require my kids to eat. Any of these on your list?
1.) Green Peas
2.) Lima Beans
3.) Cauliflower
4.) Kidney (or other animal organ)
5.) pureed meat – so glad I’m past baby food
The Body Wonder
I had a physical last week because, well, I’m 38 and it seemed like the thing to do. Well low and behold my thyroid isn’t working. As a result I’ve started some new fangled medication that is supposed to give me more energy and allow me to lose weight (versus exercising in some sort of self-torturous adventure). Glad I got that physical – like seriously.
That’s it – that is what has been on my mind. See how I could never really tie all those things together? I don’t know – I’m blaming my newly malfunctioning thyroid.
See Dick Fail His Class
This is a warning, that for the second time this week I will be stepping upon my soap-box. I promise to not make this a trend.
It’s the first week of school here in Dallas, as it is in most states. I teach college English and like most teachers I start every year with a couple of key goals in mind:
1.) How do I inspire my students to do their best work?
2.) How do I get my students to engage with my subject and as a result learn something?
3.) How do I make my subject matter relevant to them without deluding the quality of the assignment?
4.) How do I make them better skilled as a human so they can go be successful in the world?
I will be the first to admit that some semesters I am more successful than others. I am more successful with some students than I am with others. Teaching is never going to have a 100% success rate. EVER. Why? Because it takes at least two people to be successful in the classroom me and the student and as a teacher I can only control half of that equation. As a result, it infuriates me when bureaucrats, legislators and parents become enraged when they look at dropout rates or failure rates and blame the teachers. Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of bad teachers out there, but you cannot legislate success.
This summer, in anticipation of this school year, the Dallas ISD passed a new grading policy that is effective across the district. Here are some highlights (for the full article go here):
1.) Teachers MUST accept late homework from all students
2.) If a student fails a test they are automatically given a chance to retake the test
3.) Teachers MUST drop any low grade that would lower a students overall average
4.) A teacher cannot give any grade lower than a 50%
Their defense of this policy is that they have a high dropout rate among 9th grade students who fail 2 or more classes within the first 6 weeks of school. However, the reason why they are failing the first 6 weeks of class isn’t because the teachers are failing them it is because THEY CAN’T READ! Nothing like treating the symptom but not fixing the cold. Just because we pretend that these kids aren’t failing doesn’t mean they aren’t. This policy absolutely horrifies me — it is neither helping the students nor assisting the teachers. Why as a society are we incapable of saying the tough things about our own education system?
I’m retreating from my soap-box and will place it back in the closet. Thank you for your patience.
