THINGS BAD PARENTS SAY on Flush 'em Friday, the 10 18 13 Edition

Happy Flush 'em Friday! Time to nominate who and/or what needs to be sent right down the old porcelain throne. This week I must do this from the point of view of a 24 year veteran teacher in the second largest school district of these United States of America. 

Parents who say the following...

• "S/He's a smart kid but..."

• "Why I am just now hearing that s/he is flunking every class halfway through the semester?" (Good question, why are you acting like you believed your child when they told you they didn't have any home work, for any class, ever?)

• "I don't know why s/he did that, s/he always been such a nice girl/boy?" (Also spoken by many grandmothers of mass murderers shortly after their arrest.)

• "Oh, I know, s/he acts like that at home, what can I do?"

• "I don't know, s/he doesn't come home until 10, 11 o'clock at night." 

• "Trust me, my son/daughter will never do that again", for the fourth time. 

• And my all time favorite, "Why are you always calling me?! Call his father, he doesn't have a job, bother him!" 

I better stop before I get mean. Have a great day everyone!

Flush 'em Friday 3 4 11 Edition

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Happy Flush 'em Friday everybody! It's time to call out the people and things who need to be flush right out! So, here is the list as I see it for Friday, March 4, 2011.


The half page fold over ad things on my daily newspaper they I have to move to see what I really want to read.

Idiots who wear Che Guevara t-shirts. Che Guevara was a thug and would shoot your mother in the head before shooting you if you disagreed with him. 

Charlie Sheen for being his age and acting 20 stupid something. As usual, the idiot is apparently unaware that everyone else knows he is an idiot. 

LAUSD and all other school districts for attempting to hold on to more teacher than are needed and now having to cut many more than needed loose. 

LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa for falling off his bike and then becoming a bike riders advocate. 

Unions for not knowing when enough is way more than enough. 

Now it is your turn. Please leave me your Flush 'em Friday addition.

Teachers and Reform

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As a 22 year veteran of public education I have lived the tension between my union, the district, teachers and reform. I have seen the status quo, Goals 2000, No Child Left Behind, and now Race to the Top. 

As an educator  I have served as a classroom teacher, categorical program advisor, intervention coordinator and administrator. As a teacher I encountered what all teachers encounter; students, parents and administrative bureaucracy. Now, each of these have an effect on each and every classroom. They also are a constant source of complaints and excuses from educators. I can not tell you how many times I have heard, "These kids," "These parents," and "These administrators." Usually some expression of exasperation related to how impossible it seems to be a successful educator under the present conditions. Personally, I learned that in public education I have no control over which children live in the area I teach, the parents that give birth to them and raise them (or not), and in my present position I have little to no influence with or over the district I work for.  So, I just do the best I can from where we are at. In that sense I find teacher evaluations a tenuous task if it does not take into consideration how little control a teacher has of outside influences that directly affect outcomes. Besides the fact that districts are famous for changing programs every seven years,which means teachers must relearn their material, which may take years to master, on an ongoing basis. Then the outcomes are changed randomly with the change of political leadership (currently and oxymoron).  The Kiss (Keep It Simple Stupid) principle is never applied to educational leadership.

I also question the idea that we just need to fire all the bad teachers. Although I do agree that some should go, I ask who would take their place? If there is an imagined line of "good" teachers waiting to take over classrooms, it is only in someones imagination, not reality. The reality is that even among good teachers not many are highly affective. In a conversation I had last week with a colleague (who I am humbled by his effectiveness) we came to an interesting perspective. I come from a church background and there is a portion of the Bible that describes some (valuable and good) leaders and being "apt" to teach, meaning they were not gifted at teaching but were able to get the point across. Many teachers are "apt" to teach, but few are gifted with a natural talent for helping others learn.

One truth that is often overlooked is that high performing students usually come from good, stable families. As I wrote earlier, teachers have no control over who enrolls at there school and little to no control over which students they get. As an aside, teaching gifted students is really an unfair benefit for a teacher to be judged by or comparison against with other teachers. Gifted and high achieving students usually already get how to learn and have learned it before you teach it.

Where is my union on all this? ...

Take Back Your Schools LA!

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I am just wondering how the "honorable" Mayor of Los Angeles Antonio Villaraigosa can look look himself in the mirror? I has been said that the worst deception is self-deception.

My local fish-wrap tells me, that

"Joined by civil rights lawyers and Los Angeles Unified officials, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa urged the local teachers union Thursday to support reform layoff procedures or get left behind."

Here's the deal: all the teachers that are at the Mayors' school are hand picked. Why didn't the mayors' team pick teachers with more experience? I took part in those race-based exercises. What a farce! Now, the group is offering teachers $10,000 bonuses to come teach in their schools. Of course, it doesn't hurt if you look like the mayor. Just go to any of the schools sites and check out the "diversity" of the staff. Pfff! Back to the hand picked teachers chosen by "PartnershipLA." Again, THEY recruited, THEY chose, THEY should be developing their choices. Now, Villaraigosa wants to infect all LA schools with a problem he chose to have.

This problem of inexperienced teachers going to under-preforming schools has always existed. There was money given to schools with staffs that had teachers with less than the average tenure. I guess the Democratically controlled state legislature let that end.  

Antonio is not trying to help all schools, he's just trying to save his partnership.

Take back your schools LA!

The Educational Blame Game

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Since the beginning people have been blaming others. But God, "It's the women you gave me."

Now, in education the blame game goes to teachers. The LA Times has been running articles about teacher effectiveness. The LA Times is making public a data-base of teachers that purports to allow parents to see how effective, or not, their child's teacher is. The funny thing is that if LAUSD was using this information to evaluate teachers it would not be public anymore.

I've been in education for 21+ years. Evaluations are usually just a royal pain in the asterisk. Why do I say this? Because they normally are not geared to actually helping a teacher improve. I have been on both sides of the evaluation process. It takes a lot of work and preparation, as an administrator to use the evaluation process in a positive manner.  I will say that without the ability to dislodge un-teaching teachers it is hard to always make progress.

The reality is that on the whole, good students come from good families, no matter the socio-economic situation. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree. The block-head doesn't fall to far from the cliff.  If you haven't taught you probably have no idea what it's like to teach a "won't learn" student from a "don't care" parent. If you are a good parent, your children will probably be successful because you will do what you need to do to make sure your child succeeds.

While I do believe teachers should be accountable, parents and students need to be accountable too.

Help for Teachers or Hurt for Education?

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So the POTUS and the congress pushed through another bill aimed at helping teachers and other civil servants. Although I am an educator I am not sure if this bill is a good thing for education. The bill is aimed at saving teachers jobs and also jobs for police and firefighters. There is even money for Medicare that doesn't have to be spent on Medicare.

Washington, D.C. (Aug 10) – The U.S. House of Representatives closed out its emergency session today finalizing H.R. 1586 authorizing funding for states avoiding massive lay-offs this fall. Nearly, 140,000 educators risked being furloughed at the beginning of the school year if the bill was to fail.
The bill passed the House 247 to 161 with only one Republican voting in favor of the bill, and three Democrats voting against the bill.
The bill authorizes $16 billion for Medicaid funding and $10 billion for education all at the cost of reduction of food stamps for families in need.- WorldNewsVine

Enrollment has been declining in California for the last several years. My question is if we have less students shouldn't we have fewer teachers? If we don't need teachers yet "save" teachers' jobs isn't that a just a form of  welfare? That may seem harsh, but, if education is supposed to be about the students why would spend more on teachers if declining enrollment says we need less? And as a 21 year education vet one thing I know is that if "the the big wigs" can put money in the "general fund" and use it for pet special "projects" they will. Because if the money is not coming every year than it is only a band-aid on a severed limb. Saving teachers jobs just to save jobs does not automatically help student achievement. 

Perhaps someone is trying to buy votes.

95/5 The Good, The Bad, and the Goofy?

I have this little theory. The theory is that in every class 95% of the students are good kids and 5% are bad, either goofy or evil. My problems occur when I let the 5% take up 95% of my time. 


This year I have one class that is challenging those assumptions. I think the balance is off. It may be 60/40 rather than 95/5. Most students have something they want. Something they care about. But, what do I do with those who actually don't care? What do I do with someone who has not come to the realization that doing nothing will result in nothing? 


My other classes prove the theory true. When I work the 95% who are good, the 5% who are not eventually come in line. 


Maybe I just believe...


It's funny how our choices, even in Middle School can so effect the rest of our lives.