What I believe about students

In another one of my Sunday wanderings out in blogland, I found Elaine Plybon and her post on what she believes about students.  She challenged readers to come up with three beliefs and so I did:

What I believe about students:

 

I believe students want to have fun while they learn.  They want teachers who bring a sense of fun into the classroom.  They are willing to do the hard work if they know they can have some fun along the way or celebrate at the end.

 

I believe students want to have friends and work with people they like.  They are young and learning about relationships and school is one of those places where they meet many different people and can try out their ideas.  They want cooperative classmates and teachers.

 

I believe students want to be successful at what they do.  They don’t like failure any more than their teachers do, but sometimes they can’t figure out how to succeed and need our help to get them through the tangled web of learning.

 

Why these beliefs?  Because that’s what I want for myself in a work place, and after working in an inner city school for 20 years, I have seen how students behave when they have these qualities in their day.  School is better for them, and they enjoy coming to class, which for me is half the work.

Check out Ms Plybon’s post; then I challenge you, dear Reader, to come up with your three beliefs and link back here to let me know about your post.

Workspaces

I love to see how other people work, and I just found a great website that lets me look at the workspaces of artistic people.  If I were an artist, I would upload my pictures there, but since I am not, dear Reader you get to see them here.

My office at school:  

 

 

 

My office at home:  

 

Here’s a challenge:  how about the rest of you upload a picture of your workspace, let me know, and I’ll come check it out.

With a grateful heart

We are at the end of 2008, and as many of us think, “how did that happen? how fast the year went!,” I want to stop for a moment and just say thank you.  

Thank you, dear Reader, for coming by this spot and reading my words.  I appreciate all of you.  Thank you for letting me into your world for a moment of time.  It is amazing that people on the other side of the globe can read about my school, my classrooms, my kids, here in little ol’ Fresno, and share with me my trials and tribulations, and my joys of teaching in an inner city school.

To all my new blog buddies, thank you for writing, for sharing your life with the world, and letting me peak in too.  Although those of you over there on the right are my absolute favorites, I am discovering more of you each day.  I sometimes wonder if I will have enough room for all my “favorites,” but then I remember one of my maxims:  there is always enough.

To WordPress, thank you for this place. I love it.  You have given the opportunity to so many to share their story.  Years ago I did a graduation speech for the Marketing Academy entitled, “Everyone has a story,” and this place lets us all tell ours.

Best wishes for a wonderful new year.  Here’s to more stories.

Do you attend conferences?

I have a new blogging buddy, right over there, top of the list, Beth Holmes.  She had an interesting post about education conferences and I contributed this piece:

So much of what I hear at conferences is what I already know.  Many times I’m doing even more than they are sharing. Or, the people who are presenting do not work with the same student as I do.  The conferences are always far away, at expensive hotels, and I keep thinking about how I could be using this money in my classroom with my students.

Preparing to be away from the classroom is also difficult.  For a number of years my team was on the speaking circuit and we realized we were gone more than we were in the classroom.  That’s when I said, “if they want to hear what we have to say, they have to come see us.”  We had a few years of visitations, but as more people started doing what we were doing, that trailed off.  We get about one visitation a year now.

Best & worst cities for women

Want to know how your town fares in being a healthy spot?  Women’s Health Magazine has this great visual to let you see how you are doing.  Fresno, my hometown, not so good.

And to all my great guy readers, here’s the site for you.  Don’t want to be sexist.

What I learned this semester

I learned a lot this fall semester because I had to.  I was a quick study of PhotoShop layers and my kids did some pretty good things with the little bit I knew and was able to pass on.  

I learned that my multimedia kids hate to take photos, but I don’t understand why.  I always gave them lots of leeway in the assignments, but they fought me each week on getting three pictures taken and uploaded.  You would have thought I was asking them to do calculus.  They enjoyed using the photos I uploaded for them, and many would not have done the assignments without my pictures.

I learned that the kids who did really well are the ones I’ve had before.  They are well trained and ready to get in and do the work.  The others, who don’t know me very well, would fool around, wasting time, and then want the deadlines to be extended.  Hah.  They also thought they could turn in crappy work, as long as they turned in something, and could pass the class.  They found out that I am a tough grader who expects good work.  My academy students would always try to make their work better, taking to heart each check point and the evaluations I would give them.  Maybe this next semester I will see better work from the newbies.

I learned that I must be unusual in that I don’t have a desk in my classrooms.  I sit and work where ever there is space and/or an open computer.  But reading another blog, I find that is a dream of others.  I have a wonderful office, however, where I can store my stuff.    

I learned that NOT teaching sophomores for the first time in 18 years was wonderful.  I had no idea how much time and energy I put into those kids until I didn’t have to do it.  My classes are filled with upper classmen which I really like, especially since two thirds of my students are from my previous sophomore classes where I worked so hard to get them trained.

I learned I can teach FrontPage, and the kids can do a good job with the little I give them.  I’m glad that was the last unit we did this semester and will use it as a starting point in January.  I’m sure there is still much to be learned, as that is what education is all about.

How literate is your city?

Just read about the most literate cities in America.  I am certainly not surprised to see that Fresno did not make the cut.  We do not do well with bookstores and libraries in this town.  Was pleased to see that my favorite city, San Francisco, did make the cut.

A totally unwarranted award

From my good male blog buddy, TeachJ, I have received this magnanimous award:

Here are the  Rules & Regs for the bling:

1. When you receive The Award, please post it on your blog, linking back to the person who gave it to you.
2. In addition, please link to This Post, which explains the origins of The Award.
3. Please visit Veggie Mom’s Post , which explains the origins of The Award, and Sign Mr. Linky, so she’ll be able to keep a record of all whose Blogs are Pop-tastic! Feel free to leave a comment, too!!
4. Pass The Award along to SIX Bloggy Friends, whose creativity merits inclusion in this circle. Link to their blogs in your Awards Post, and notify them that they’ve received The Award.

Here are my six nominations: 

• certainabsurdity
• kathyat49
• heidisjourney2thirty 
• Mr.Blogush
• mathsage
• Cyndy Green

And since it is Christmas Eve, and Santa is on his way, I will be out there giving away this little surprise to make people’s days merry and bright.  Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night. (or whatever)

The good ol’ boy network goes to Washington

I have not had a good feeling about Obama’s choice for Secretary of Education, just a gut feeling with no real evidence, until now.  I just read this article and can say why I have felt uncomfortable about the choice.  Arne Duncan is not a man I had heard much about, and he seems to be a crony of Obama.  That is what I have seen in my teacher career–men being moved up because of who they know.  I call it the good ol’ boy network.  Seems like it is still functioning just fine.

Christmas in Malaysia

While looking at other blogs, I found this wonderful set of pictures from a shopping center in Malaysia.  Please check out SuMiMaSen’s site for more of these photos.  And, if you feel like learning something, check out wikipedia’s piece about the area in Malaysia where this shopping center is located.  Makes me want to take one of my famous fieldtrips to check out the retail activity.