Tinkerings

Originally Posted June 6, 2008

I am in the process of bidding on a foreclosed house that is badly in need of repairs. All the sheetrock would need to be removed, part of the subfloor is weak, there are fluorescent lights in nearly every room, bathrooms must be gutted, dog urine smell needs to go…you get the idea. This is not a house you want to buy and expect to move in the day of closing.

The negotiation stage is always interesting. The bank (located in Shanghai I believe) knows their bottom line acceptable price. They start the bidding somewhere above that line. I know the absolute highest amount I’m willing to pay. I start my bidding somewhere below that line. It is the dance to the middle that is always fun.

I made an offer yesterday. It was well below their asking price. Within a few hours (nearly unheard of by the way), the countered by coming down a little. I think their bottom line and my top line are going to wind up being around $5,000 or less apart. That’s when someone has to make a decision.

Classroom management is like that with some students. There is a negotiation dance that goes on between teacher and student. The teacher has set the behavior expectation bar high. Probably higher than they expect students to truly behave in the “real world.” Students labeled “behavior problem” by previous teachers or administrators (or even parents) come to class with an unacceptable level of behavior, but they are really willing to act better if they just get a little something in return. The negotiation dance begins.

Too often I find myself forgetting that this is a dance. We each have certain steps to the dance, and if it is performed well the outcome can be fairly good for all parties. However, if I stop dancing the student stops learning.

I watched this in action this past year with a first-year teacher. She sought out the kids on campus that had been thrown away by others. These kids had no parental support. Teachers had given up on them (including me for some of them). Administrators installed a revolving door for these kids (no, not literally). But this teacher saw “love babies.” Yes, we joked about the term being such a throw back to the 60’s (way before she was born). But the kids responded. They sought her out on campus when they had problems. She connected. She negotiated behavior change.

Next year, I hope to be more open to negotiating than I was this year. It is a long, painful, sometimes heartbreaking dance for both students and buying houses. But what would happen if the negotation dance had never taken place?

Originally posted May 20, 2008.

Every summer I try to get in at least one or two professional development opportunities.  This year I may have gone overboard!

In June, the TN DEN LC is hosting a TAMS Pre-Conference event in or around Cool Springs, TN.  That will be day of great fun!  Immediately afterwards, I am presenting and attending the TAMS conference in Cool Springs.

The following week three of us are hoping in the Caddy and heading to San Antonio for NECC.  This will be my first time to stay for the entire event.  I’m looking forward to the multiple-football-field-size exhibit hall, meeting some friends from Twitter, attending “official” sessions, and attending NECC Unplugged - a series of informal workshops hosted in the blogger’s cafe.

Not long after that two of us leave for Silver Spring, MD, for a week of intensive training (and fun, of course) with the DEN LC National Institute.  This will be my third year to Silver Spring, but my first year to drive.

When the Fall finally gets here, a group of teachers from Lake Forest are flying to Denver for the National Middle Schools Association Conference.  That is always a great experience, too!

So…what are you doing this summer?

Originally posted May 19, 2008
We are in our last week of classes. Whew! The year has flown by, but last week and this week have been two v-e-r-y long weeks. We are in the midst of the annual struggle between teachers who are desperately trying to finish up lesson plans, get in last minute grades, and keep order and sanity in the classroom; and students who are struggling with acute spring fever, don’t see the point in working, and generally want to spend the day goofing off. When you add to that the end-of-year traditions like field days sponsored by the PE department, a student/faculty baseball game, field trips, and more, you begin to see just how frustrating days can be.

We are also shutting down aspects of school that impact how this battle is waged. Textbooks have been turned in. Today we are closing out student lockers. And the last minute scramble for professional development hours is on!

Teaching is a great job. I love it. But at this time of year, an old quote about pastoring churches comes to mind. Paraphrased, it goes: “Teaching would be great if it weren’t for the kids.” While this is a tongue-in-cheek approach (and certainly not true for any real teacher), these last days of school lend us to breath a different viewpoint: “Teaching would be great if we didn’t have to stop for the summer.”

Don’t get me wrong, I’m looking forward to our summer break as much as the next teacher. Yet, I have to wonder if these days wouldn’t ultimately be easier if it was a shorter, more frequently scheduled break as in a year round calendar. Of course, about the middle of July I will be wishing the summer were a little longer!
Whether you are a teacher, student, or parent, feel free to leave me a comment on what you think about year-round schooling.