|
|
 |
Reply
| | | From: Old Coot (Original Message) | Sent: 11/22/2008 1:38 PM |
would like to comment on the "baby boomers" generation?
oc..we produced 3 of them ...... |
|
Reply
| |
*vague* not enough coffee yet |
|
Reply
| |
Now we're teaching the NeXters...they're an even more interesting bunch. We used to talk about what kind of country we'd have when the JenXers entered the work force. Sad to say, most of our predictions are happening just as we thought. Who ever listens to teachers? What do we know? Teachers saw something in George W Bush, the American public ignored, and paid the consequence for. Gotta tell you this NeXter next crew coming up now, is even more scary than the JenXers. The "pendulum" ain't swinging the other way, and this crew will have a global competition against which they are ignorantly unarmed. |
|
Reply
| |
Pikes...The question that always immediately came to my mind when someone gave me a rule is "Why?" (more akin to "What's the point" rather than a causal question) When I first began teaching (late 80s) I remember dealing with a particular child who was troubled in more ways than I was equipped to deal with, and as I puzzled over what to do, the frightening realization came to me: "I cannot Do anything to Make this child adhere to rules or follow expectations". At the end of the day, if a child refuses over and over, there is little a teacher can do. It scared the s**t out of me, but it made me a better teacher...that's when I began focusing on motivation and giving Them a reason why...a reason that has little to do with "What will I get out of it". Teaching has done me few financial favors...but it kept me from despair. I'm not being melodramatic. I had to find a way to change (even if a little) the destructive apathy that seeped into the marrow of a generation. (Maybe the conservative opposition to stem cell research is metaphor as well...) I have spent my share of faculty meetings listening to peers bemoan the current class of students; however, if you examine closely enough, each generation is precisely who the previous generation raised them to be -- for good or ill. |
|
Reply
| |
Disclaimer from this JenXer: Don't listen to a word I say. I'm hardly 'typical'...I'm the kid who lost sleep at night troubled because I couldn't comprehend that space was endless. I'd think to the edges of what my child mind could comprehend, and be entirely disturbed because I knew that just beyond the fringes of my understanding were worlds upon worlds that I couldn't grasp. |
|
Reply
| | From:  _Xer | Sent: 11/22/2008 10:35 PM |
| Let the record show: Chronologically, I fall neatly into the category Coot calls Boomers. My handle is not pronounced X..er, but is pronounced xSer. or tSir. Who here does not yet know the origin of my handle? |
|
Reply
| |
*raises hand and awaits explanation* |
|
Reply
| |
Jen, I've always been about why, and motivation. That's what landed the trouble of the last year in my lap. I worked for a moron, who works for a moron, who decided the mark of a good teacher is to go beyond bell to bell teaching. Teachers are actually dinged in evaluation, if they don't teach right up to the bell. To begin, they are supposed to have some "sponge" activity on the board, that kids are to read and do as soon as they enter the classroom, so the teacher can also monitor the hall. Every teacher is to have the word Objectives on the board, and a lesson plan outlined below the word, so an administrator can walk in at any moment, see what's on the board, observe the class, and know where the teacher is in that plan. The objectives must contain a description of what students will be able to do by the end of class. If a teacher deviates from the plan for any reason, or an observing administrator can't relate the lesson to the outline, he is dinged in his evaluation. One marching band instructor was dinged because he didn't have objectives on a board outside during marching band practice. From then on, he had to get a portable, wheeled chalkboard out onto the field when they had practice. We had to have classroom doors open at all times, in violation of fire code, defeating the automatic door closers on all classroom doors. Second year of that stupidintendent, the district spent almost a million dollars, retrofitting all classroom doors with magnetic closers that would keep the doors open, but release them in case of a fire. There were issues with noise in the hall, and issues about me because the sound of the bands reverberated down the hall, and I were told more than once, we had to play softer! One day, one of the deputy assistant superintendents visited, and told me I needed to shut my classroom door. I quoted the superintendent, and was told to use common sense. I always wanted to use that. However the principal later told me I had to keep the door open. So much for common sense. Can you see why it was easy for someone to be insubordinate with these people. I missed a meeting, that was called after 4pm the previous day, notice for which was taped to some exit door windows, but not to others. Because I missed that meeting, I was insubordinate. With that crew, those NeXers don't have a chance. Is it any wonder why that district is such a mess? |
|
Reply
| |
I worked for a moron, who works for a moron, who decided the mark of a good teacher is to go beyond bell to bell teaching. I have to clarify this. Not go beyond, as in do extra things for students, or with students, but as in start class before the beginning bell, and teach right up to the dismissal bell. You start class literally while you are in the hall, with an activity the students are supposed to immediately engage and embrace the moment they walk through your door. Of course, most never did. |
|
Reply
| |
Pikes...when I hear you talk about your experiences I ache deep inside. Your (mis)administration would hate me...and I wouldn't give a shit. I plan...kind of a skeleton with objectives...but the Art of teaching is responding to those with whom you work and being Able to adapt teaching to them. Pea-brained beaurocrats (and here I'm going to reveal just how elitist I am) who have little to no content knowledge, who possess mail-order "PhDs" in school administration (where the hell is the 'philosophy' in that?) should never presume to tell someone who has devoted years of study to a particular area of the arts, sciences, history, mathematics, etc how to teach . I'm sure it will be my downfall someday, but I refuse to listen to those who can't do what I do yet attempt to teach me how to do it better. *remember...you guys said you'd love me even if I was honest* |
|
Reply
| |
I too, teach in the moment. I call student driven initiatives, gifts, and they are precious. They are springboards into exploration, knowledge, and wisdom, because the kids drive it. I typically have an outline and intention, but depend on student curiosity to drive what happens, and I steer that in a way so they can productively explore. Sometimes it deviates in a significant, and considerable exploration. But it is always full of music, and humanity. It requires considerable knowledge and presence on the instructor's part, and is modelled after the same method used by the most brilliant teachers at Juilliard. The district lawyer presented that these superfluous deviations, like the portion of film I showed when we began sections of Carmina Burana, were irrelevant to music instruction, because they have nothing to do with playing notes etc. The state hearing officer agreed with him. I was left in absolute shock over this. It felt like something out of the Inquisition. I think Colorado neoconism was never more ignorant. |
|
Reply
| | | From: _Xer | Sent: 11/23/2008 5:14 AM |
| Jen, I first got online in October of 1998 when Matthew Shephard was murdered. The local NBC newscaster said something about internet responses to the murder, so I went to the local King 5 News (MSNBC) site to read for myself. An idiot calling himself Rex was there spouting homophobic garbage. In response to such raw stupidity I took the name 'xeR' to argue opposing views. I've remained Xer ever since. |
|
Reply
| |
I knew it was Rex backward, but never knew the exact origin. I thought it might be the Latin Rex, as in King. Always wondered about how you pronounce it. Xer, as in Xerces (ZIR-sees) (Hey! That is a rare crusic Europasian name) |
|
Reply
| |
Re # 12:
"*remember...you guys said you'd love me even if I was honest*"
No, it is because you are a "cutie"
oc...and I do not care if that is sexist !.... |
|
Reply
| |
 Cooter...I don't think you could be sweeter if you tried!!!  Xer...that is HILARIOUS...my nic comes from Sting's Sacred Love album, the song is "NeverCominHome"...when I first joined MSN groups, I didn't know I had to have a nic, didn't really understand what all this was about. That song was playing, and I am a bit of a gypsy...so here we are... Pikes... Keep your pearls...the swine (lipsticked or not) don't deserve what you have to offer. Too bad they prevent learners from benefitting from you...unbelievable. |
|
Reply
| | | From: _Xer | Sent: 11/24/2008 8:08 AM |
Close enough, Pikes.
----------------------------------
It's a cool nic, Jen. Bit of a handful of keystrokes, but a cool nic nonetheless. |
|
|
|
Free Forum Hosting
Important Announcement
First
Return to General