Blogush

Alright now listen…just wanted to squeeze this post in for fun.
* = one of my students came up with it
Full credit for inspiration for this goes to a blog post from Peter Hilts and a tweet from Mathew Stublefield about http://bit.ly/BsSJt

If movie theaters were like schools…

Everyone would sit in alphabetical order.

If you laughed at the car crash you would have to leave and talk to the guidance counselor.

There would be IEPs in place for the guys so that they could sit through an entire chick flick.

There would be no candy or soda allowed.

By 2012, NMLB law would have all children ready to view rated R movies.

If you showed up to the movie late you would be given a detention.

If you tried to leave early the manager would haul you back in.

If your cell phone goes off the staff will confiscate it.

You would have to pause the movie and write a blog post reflecting on why they would name the starship the “Enterprise.”

You would have to enter and exit the theater in two straight lines.

The movies you watched would be chosen for you.

Once a month you would have to watch a movie about a culture other than your own.

*Everyday you would have to watch action movies first, then drama, then romances, then horror.  There would be no movies allowed that crossed genre lines like romantic dramas.

*Any movie over 50 minutes long would be completed the next day

*Can’t watch previews of what is upcoming until movie is over.

*Can’t pee while movie is going on

*Any B movie would have to be re-made until it is a hit.

If no one spoke for the entire movie you would get a blue star on the board.

*The opening sequence of rules would be 2 hours long.

*You can’t leave the theater with a friend to go to their house unless you have a note from your mother.

*If you are sick and can’t watch a movie the next day you have to watch twice as many movies.

*There would be no cursing in the movies.

*They would take out the air conditioning and install two small fans.

*There would be five screens but only two projectors.

When the projectors break you would have to role play the characters in the movie.

All the incorrigible viewers would have to watch Marley and Me until they cried.

Popcorn would be ordered in bulk from Frey Scientific and cost $25 per pound.

The ushers would have to be certified, have 30 hours of credits, pass two tests, and practice ushering with another usher who sat through a 6 hour workshop on how to teach ushering before being hired.

People would be bused across town because watching the movie with a diverse audience will bring more peace and harmony.

Every movie theater in the city would be playing the same movie at the same time.

There would be no comedies shown.

You could watch movies, but not create movies.

Ushers would have PD on how to check and see if the audience is watching the movie, but none on making movies.

You are not allowed to boo, only cheer for movies.

If the males didn’t like watching movies when they get older it IS NOT because they had to learn how to watch movies by watching Beaches, An Officer and a Gentleman, Dirty Dancing, Ice Castles, and Flashdance.

Ushers in the black-and-white movies would be hand writing letters to their loved ones.

Ushers in the 3-D movies would be twittering to one another on their phones wondering why the ushers in the black-and-white movies are still hand writing letters with more than 140 characters.

I fell like I should re-name my blog “Posts of randomly somewhat put together thoughts.” Anyway…

Someone just told me yesterday that if you bring a problem to the table, you should also bring a solution. The problem is, change doesn’t occur when people are given answers to questions they haven’t asked.

A few minutes ago I was sitting on the…well it’s not important what I was sitting on …and I was thinking about how many of my blog posts sort of ask people what kind of teacher are you?  I don’t write about great positive things and say here is how you could be super awesome, but rather focus on some of the evils that teachers can bring to the table without even knowing it.  Even in my last post I talked about how we set kids up for failure, rather than how we should set them up for success.

When I was done thinking I hopped on the computer and the exact same conversation was occurring on twitter between @pepepacha,  @kellyhines,  @spedteacher, and @iMrsF –sorry if I missed someone-the conversation is probably still ongoing!

I often think about my posts and consider writing the “opposite” of what I planned–write how to-do something instead of what not to do.  Each time I don’t and feel guilty.

When I read about someone’s positive “here is how to get your kids to_____” post I might think it’s a good idea and want to try it but I don’t connect with it, I don’t question it or my practice.  If I am reading about something I have never done before it is hard to be reflective on my past practice.  It doesn’t make me question what I do, because it is giving me the answer for how to do something that I never knew I needed the answer to.  When I read a post from someone questioning what I am doing, pointing out problems with things I do, I begin to question my practices, my beliefs, I challenge myself.  If I question something I begin searching for answers–sometimes I makes changes to my practice, sometimes I end up doing what I am doing better because of the reflection and research.

As I am writing this it makes me reflect on my teaching style.  If a student does something I question it, which makes them question it, which if they have a “no” response makes them seek a way to make a positive change.

Student:What do you think of my thesis?

Me choice A:Here is how you should change it to make it stronger…

Me choice B: Does it inspire the reader to ask “Why?” or “How?”

Choice B has the kid say “yes” and move on, or “no” and go back to their seat to fix it–if they can’t figure out how to do it they come back up to me where they are met by more questions.  Eventually they have a rock solid thesis that they came up with, and have gone through the thought process on how to get to a solid thesis.

Do “positive posts” not let readers in on the thought process on how to get to the positive?

Ahh…I am going to totally shift where I was going in this post…is the simple answer to whether a blog post is negative or positive determined by the answer to the question “Does it inspire the reader to ask ‘why?’ or ‘how?’ about their own practice?”  Would writing a post about the ills of educational practices that leads the reader to shift and question what they need to do to change be more powerful than writing a “Here is the change you need to be” sort of post?

It’s almost like every post should come in pairs.  One week here is the problem, chew on it and reflect.  Week two here are some possible solutions to the problem.

I guess in the end that many of my posts reflect a struggle going on inside of me about one of my practices.  I don’t question the positive stuff, the things that would make for smiles and laughs.  I beat myself up for all the negative ones.  I am in a period of my career in which I can reflect on nearly 20 years of experience.  I am in the most tumultuous period of my career.  I can really examine and reflect on my practices in a way a five year veteran simply cannot do.  I am looking to find ways to be a better teacher.  That means I have to examine some pretty cruddy things that I might be doing through a lens that can see twenty years into the past.  That crud is what I reflect on in this blog.

Maybe that is why many blogs veer towards the negative or sound whiny.  Therapy can be expensive, blogging is cheap.  How often do we reflect on our sucesses?  How often do we reflect on our failures?  Do you go home and obsess about the 98 kids who passed your class? or the two kids that failed?  Do you obsess about the 10 thank-you emails from parents? or the one you suck email from a parent?

Ok so I promise, another post wil not appear until I write one that reflects on a positive teaching practice of mine. If you blog…how about you doing the same?  It can simply be what do you do really well and reflect on how you make it happen!

If I ever waited until I “finished” a blog entry to post it, this would be an empty blog. This post is another string of thoughts I have had this week that just never made it into a complete post, but I know that you could draw your own connections between these various thoughts…

I would love to make a graph showing attitude toward school and grades. Lower the grade, the worse the attitude. Continuously failing a kid does not “teach them a lesson” or help them eventually succeed. Making the curriculum more rigorous does not lead students to be more successful.

We spend a lot of time forcing kids to do things when they are not ready. Their first experience with a great many things is failure. I think teachers believe that it is just part of the process to fail something when you start, and slowly build up to success.

My daughter is seven and has never learned how to ride a bike. It just seemed as though there was never a great need to learn. There have been attempts over the years but each time she resisted so we never pushed it—it just did not matter whether she knew how to ride. Yesterday we were planning on going on a bike ride as a family at our local rail-trail. Suddenly it dawned on us that she could not ride, didn’t even have a bike, but really wanted to go. I dug an old bike out of the garage and handed it over to her on the driveway. The first time it was a bit shaky and I held her tight not even letting her wobble. The second time I held onto her shoulder to help her balance. The third time I ran next to her. The fourth time I just helped her on and let her go. The fifth time she did the whole thing by herself. Each attempt she experienced success, not failure, she knew what it was like to ride with the wind blowing back her hair. When she fell in subsequent attempts, she knew what it was like to feel success, and gathered herself up and did not feel like a failure. The earlier success gave her encouragement to try it again. Later on that day I saw her streaking up and down the driveway. At one point she stopped to come in and get a drink. I asked her what she was doing. She said, “I am racing people, and I always win.”

Do teachers fall into two groups?  One who never let go of their kids, and one that never holds on and lets them fall and expects them to get back up with out any help?

Can you imagine what it must be like to spend seven hours a day, everyday, in a place with people that label you a “D” or an “F,” a loser, a failure. Everyday entering a race and never winning, never even knowing what the race is for or which direction to run? And if you even decided one day to try your best you would still not be labeled a success?

Scenario for you—a bit extreme but…you have student who has done nothing all year. Refused to do oral presentations, never turns in homework, and forget about studying. On the day of a presentation she gets up for the first time all year and delivers a speech she wrote for homework—the first thing she has done all year. Her 5 minute project on Civil War Battles is 2 minute speech about D-Day. She walks proudly back to her seat thinking she has nailed it….what do you do…she entered the race, you get to decide whether she is a winner or loser. Don’t give me any of the mushy garbage about telling her what a good job she did but yada yada…That only sounds good in your head, not hers. She thinks she is an A. Do you tell her she is an F?