More indoctrination

When arriving at work this morning, I found this in my mailbox:

I want to you take a close look at what the schools want teachers to do:

- Organize discussion groups in class or after school to talk about and promote homosexuality.
- Bring up homosexuality in conversations with friends and in class discussions.
- Put up posters and wear items promoting homosexuality.

Here is my feeling on this:
- I teach chemistry. Promoting homosexuality is not a part of my course content. I won't do it. I am not going to tell underaged teen boys that it is acceptable to suck dick, or underage teen girls that they should be out there licking pussy. I am just not going to do it.

- From a biological standpoint, if homosexuality were to become the norm, our species would cease to exist, as it interferes with reproduction. This by definition makes homosexuality a behavioral disorder. That isn't to say that people who are homosexual should be mistreated or bullied in any way, nor forced into treatment, but I don't feel that it needs to be celebrated or promoted any more than does flatulence, halitosis, or coronary heart disease.

- As far as transgenders: just because you believe yourself to be a woman does not make it so, any more than I would be a chicken if I claimed to be one. If you believe yourself to be of a sex other than the one which you biologically are, you have a mental disorder. Treatment should be offered for this, but not forced upon transgenders, unless that transgender belief endangers you or others.

However, professing the above beliefs and opinions would get me terminated if it were to become known amongst my coworkers. Free speech, my ass.

Teaching evaluations

On March 7th of this year, I was hired by a local high school to teach physics and chemistry. The teacher before me had been fired for absenteeism two months earlier. They had been in the classroom with substitute teachers for over three months of class time when I was hired. It is difficult to find qualified teachers in STEM fields, and even harder to find qualified teachers for chemistry and physics. Maybe this is why:

The results of our teacher evaluations just came back for last year. The evaluation is based upon three factors:

1 Your plan for teaching and improving yourself and your students (Called a Professional Development Plan or Deliberate Practice Plan)

2 Your classroom skills, as evidenced by a classroom visit and observations made by a school administrator

(These first two factors are called your Instructional Practices Score)

3 Student performance on end of year standardized tests. 

The scores are on a 4 point scale, with 3.50 and higher being superior, 2.5-3.49 being average, and anything less putting your job in jeopardy.

The standardized tests that my evaluation was based on, was administered during the week of March 28 - April 1. Spring break was the previous week. In other words, I was employed by the school for exactly 11 days before they were tested.

Even better, the students whose test scores were the basis for my evaluation were 10th graders. Physics and chemistry are 11th and 12th grade courses. There is no standardized test for either chemistry or physics, so the school uses the 10th grade reading test to rate all teachers whose class does not have a standardized exam.

So that third factor, which comprises 40% of my evaluation, is testing students that I don't teach, in a subject that has nothing to do with the subjects I teach, and tested them on skills that they learned or didn't learn before I even worked there.

When my classroom teaching was observed, it was during a physics class. In the the first instance, they were testing the math formula for determining pendulum period. They used different weights and different lengths of string to build pendulums to see which had the greater effect on pendulum period. Then they had to use the pendulum formula to construct a pendulum with a 2 second period. 

During the second class, the students were measuring frequency and wavelength of ultrasonic waves, and using that to calculate the speed of sound in various mediums. 

What did I get as a score for my IPS? A 3.2.

The test that the students took just two weeks after I was hired? I got a 2.49 for that. For performance that didn't even happen when I was there.

How is that an accurate or fair assessment of a teacher's skill? Do you know why I was evaluated like this? Florida law says that I get a large bonus if I am a new (to the district) teacher and my SAT scores were above the 80th percentile. By giving me an evaluation from last year, they get out of paying me that bonus.

The teacher across the hall from me is a law school graduate. Last year was her first as a teacher. She is always in an hour early, and leaves an hour late. She got her evaluation today and burst into tears. 

The education system is systematically dysfunctional. Teachers who don't care are simply there to put in time, get a paycheck, and have summers off. Talented teachers who care are often run out of the classroom and return to other careers.

It pays to be well qualified

On February 6th, I was summarily fired from my teaching job with no warning and no reason given, other than "We are going in a different direction, and you are no longer a good fit for us." Rumor had it that a student who has a wealthy and well connected father was angry that she got a C on one of my Chemistry exams, and had had her father come in and demand that I be fired.

I got an informal job offer today and will start very soon, pending background check and salary negotiation, meaning that I was out of work for exactly 20 days. I will be teaching Chemistry and Physics to 11th and 12th grade honors students. The new school is 30 minutes away from my house, but that is fine with me.

It seems that teachers who are certified to teach STEM classes are hard to come by. I am certified to teach Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Health, and a number of other sciences.  Teachers with those certifications are not easy to find.

Other than putting my resume out there, I spent the last three weeks getting caught up on household chores like yard work and getting some maintenance done on the cars. The old school had to pay me some money under the terms of my contract (which came to two months' pay), I got two weeks' unemployment, and now I am back to work. As it turns out, I actually made money on the deal.

As for my old school, the morning before I was fired they hired a guy to take over my classes who isn't even certified to teach those subjects. He is a teacher who is only certified to teach Middle School physical education and has never taught before. The school has to send a letter to the parents of all of his students, informing them that the classes are being taught by an uncertified teacher. I am guessing that he won't last long.

Poor leadership, part 2

This is my rant about my life. 

In my post from earlier in the week, I talked about the Principal firing me because a politically well connected student received a C on one of my Chemistry exams. The story continues.

I applied for unemployment. The evidence is pretty strong in my favor:

- Three weeks before I was terminated, I received my annual evaluation, and it rated me as an "effective" employee.

- Two days before I was terminated, my evaluation score was a 2.7 (effective), which is pretty good for my school.

They are fighting my unemployment, saying that I was fired for misconduct. There are no previous discipline entries on my record, but my evaluation was changed the day after I filed for unemployment to say that I have a 2.2 (needs improvement). I have copies of everything.

During the termination proceedings, this principal (who is an amateur competitor in men's bodybuilding) told me that PE is the most important subject, because they learn skills there like teamwork and work ethic that they will use their entire lives, whereas the stuff they learn in science and math, they will never use again. Spoken like a true jock.

They hired as my replacement a guy who isn't certified to teach Biology or Chemistry. His certification is in Elementary School Physical Education. His transcripts show that he failed freshman Biology in college and had to take it over. He received a C the second time he took it. So much for schools only hiring highly qualified teachers for core subjects under "No Child Left Behind.".

Poor leadership

I have been posting about the dysfunctional education system in this country since I was hired as a teacher in July of 2014. Pay special attention to this previous post. 

I have been working as a teacher at a charter school run by a private company. It is being used as a sales tool for the commercial real estate division of that company. (As in: Look at how great the school here is! If you buy property here, your employees will have access to this great school.)

On Tuesday, some of my students came to see me during lunch and warned me that they were being called to the principal's office one at a time, told that I was being investigated in connection with a parent complaint, and asked to provide any negative comments that they had about me.

On Wednesday I was called to the principal's office and presented with the complaints. The only negative things were that I once played a video of Superbowl commercials in class, that I was curving exams, and that students felt like they were not learning in my class.

The principal also told me that out of the 50 students they questioned, all but three of them had positive things to say. He went on to claim that this was probably due to the fact that the students were afraid of retribution. I then said "So when a student complains about not liking my class, they are being accurate and truthful, but when they are happy with my class, they must be lying?"

I also pointed out that the students were all receiving test scores that were showing progress, and in fact were the same or higher than the other teachers who were teaching my subject. We had just gotten our evaluations from last school year, and my evaluations were the same or higher than teachers with decades on the job. The meeting ended there.

On Thursday and Friday, administrators came into my classroom no less than seven times to observe my teaching. I even found a recording device hidden in one of my two classrooms, that was actively and secretly recording me as I taught class.

After school on Friday, I was called from my duty of watching the parking lot and summarily fired. The only reason given was "We are letting you go. You are just not a good fit for the vision that we have here." That was the best that they could do, even after looking for a reason for four days.

Under the terms of my contract, I have to be paid for the work I have done to this point, and they owe me about two month's pay. I am not sure where I will work after this, but I have some time and plenty of money.

One of my students contacted me through another teacher. It turns out that there is a student who is bragging that she got me fired. That student has been complaining all year that she doesn't belong in my class, but in an honors class. She stated that my class was the "dummy class" and was too easy. She received a C on my last exam, and was mad, claiming that she had never received a C in her life on any test. Her father is one of the the named partners of the law firm  that represents the company that owns the charter school.

Other sources in the main offices of the school tell me that the father was indignant that his daughter received a C and demanded that I be fired, but as long as I don't make waves, the school will not give me a bad recommendation when I apply elsewhere.

That is where education is today.

Meanwhile, at school

We had a teacher workday recently. During that day, we had a meeting of the science department. Here is how part of it it went:
Head of Science Department: "If we actually graded our students' performance against the standards, and gave them the grades that we should, two thirds of them would have an F."
Anatomy teacher: "If we do that, we will all be out of a job."
Department head: "You got that right. Just give them good grades, and send them down the road."

It is a losing battle. You assign homework, less than half the class even attempts to do the work, and of that half, three quarters of them copy the answers from another student. I caught a student cheating on an exam by using his cell phone. As per policy, he got a zero and a referral. The parent, rather than being angry at the child for cheating, defended her child by saying that there is no proof that using a cell phone during a test is cheating.

She said that the child was simply texting his mother about picking him up after school, and claimed that we cannot prevent a child from texting his mother. The Vice Principal asked me if I had actually seen the child using the phone to lookup answers. I replied that I cannot see that, because the kid puts the phone away as soon as you approach.

I was told that I must allow the student to take the test without penalty, unless I actually see the student looking up answers. Simply having a phone out during a test is not sufficient, because a phone can be used for doing other things besides looking up answers.

The kids learn nothing, because they cheat on tests all year, do not do homework, and refuse to study. However, if the child gets anything less than a B, parents complain. If more than a handful of the students receive a failing grade, the teacher is in danger of losing their job. The school famously says "There are no bad students, only bad teachers. It is your job as a teacher to find a way to motivate them to learn."

At the end of the year, the students are given a standardized test to see what they learned in the past year. The test is 30% of the student's grade, but the score is adjusted. If a child misses every question, the minimum score that is used for their grade is a 58%. This makes it impossible for them to fail the test. The students know this, and unless the student is an honor student, which most are not, they don't care what grade they get.

However, the school gets graded on how the students do, as do the teachers. If the students of a given school do poorly, the school gets less money from the state. The teachers are also graded on how the students do. If your students do poorly, then you are out of a job.

It is the craziest, most dysfunctional system that I have ever seen. My job depends, not on my performance, but on the performance of a third party, who faces no consequences for poor performance. I have high school seniors as students who are reading at a second grade level, and who cannot even convert grams into kilograms without using an App on their phone. How can I teach them Chemistry?

My job depends on two things:
Keeping parents happy by ensuring that most kids get good grades.
Hoping like hell that the kids do well enough on the standardized tests at the end of the year.

Blame

By now, all of you  have read about the Muslim who tried to kill a police officer in the name of Allah using a stolen police firearm as his weapon of choice. His mother stated that he was a "devout Muslim." I want to make sure that some facts of this shooting see a wider audience:

A few facts from this story at Philly.com:

Edward Archer confessed to investigators that he had acted "in the name of Islam," authorities said.

In the name of Islam, eh?

 In the fall of 2011, he traveled to Saudi Arabia for a pilgrimage to Mecca and stayed for several weeks, an FBI spokesman said. The next year, he went to Egypt for reasons that are unclear and spent several months there.

After reading that, look at this gem of a statement:

Investigators are scouring Archer's Internet activity to see if he may have had contact with ISIS members or other radical Islamic groups. A law enforcement source said late Friday that so far they have not found any indication that Archer had been in contact with known terrorism suspects.

Maybe the fact that he traveled to two countries that are known hotbeds of terrorist activities is a hint? The usual suspects then chime in:

Jacob Bender, executive director of the Philadelphia chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations, said the incident "should not be seen as representative of Muslims or the faith of Islam," and called for a thorough investigation of the shooting.

The shooting was carried out with a handgun that had been stolen from a police officer:

Archer was armed with a semi-automatic 9mm pistol - a police-issued firearm that had been reported stolen from an officer's home in 2013, Ross said. He said it was unclear how Archer got the gun.

The shooter was a convicted felon:
In January 2012, Archer threatened another man with a gun in West Philadelphia. He pleaded guilty to simple assault and carrying a firearm without a license. He was sentenced to 9-23 months in jail and two years' probation. He was still on probation at the time of the shooting. He was immediately paroled, without serving time.

He was convicted and awaiting sentencing on charges of forgery, careless driving, and driving on a suspended license, and more. He was to be sentenced on Monday.


The Mayor stated that this shooting shows that there are too many guns on the streets. He also had this to say:

 In no way shape or form does anyone in this room believe that Islam or the teaching of Islam has anything to do with what you’ve seen on the screen. In no way shape or form does anyone in this room believe that Islam or the teaching of Islam has anything to do with what you’ve seen on the screen.

The District Attorney doubled down on the stupid:

This shows us the need for smarter laws when it relates to guns on the street. 

So let me get this straight:

A Muslim who is a convicted felon on probation for other crimes shoots and attempts to murder a police officer using a firearm that was stolen from a cop's home during a burglary. He then admits and states that he did it to further the cause of Jihad. We are told that this is not related to terrorism, and that we should in no way use this shooting as a yardstick with which to judge all Muslims.

Then we are told that this indicates that the one group of people who were not in any way involved in this incident must be punished, because gun owners are to blame when a police officer's weapon is stolen by a terrorist criminal and is used in an attempt to kill another police officer.

Wheels coming off

My post the other day showed a student attacking a teacher for confiscating his cell phone. It is getting worse. Now we have students attacking a school principal in California, and 200 high school students mobbing up and attacking police in Allentown, PA.

We are fast approaching the point of mob rule. As disconcerting as that is, what worries me most is how the government will respond when things get out of hand.

Sigh. The parents are even worse.

In the writing assignment here, I assigned this paper to my 120 students. Here is the breakdown:

Of the 60 who turned in the assignment:
In 7 of them, at least 50% of the content in it was plagiarized from internet sources (I use turnitin.com to catch plagiarism, and the students know it, so I don't understand how they think they will get away with it)

Grades:

A or B: 15

C level work: 19

D level work: 20

F: 15

Zero for cheating (plagiarism): 7
53 of them did not even attempt the assignment and got a zero


7 turned the assignment in at least three days late, and had their grade reduced accordingly

To help the kids, I have a class website, where:

I post the rubric that I use to grade the papers. This rubric tells the kids exactly what criteria I use for grading. They all know EXACTLY what they need to do in order to get a decent grade.

I post a sample of an A level paper, so they know what one looks like.

I post the requirements for the paper, including the due date and the website where they are to submit the paper. Even so, I still get parents who email me and complain that their precious snowflake wasn't aware of the (due date, late policy, plagiarism policy, method of citing another's work, or other requirement) and can't I make an exception?

It has gotten to the point where I have to have the students sign a paper saying that they are aware of the class requirements. Last week, I had a parent go all legal on me and try to say that a child's signature on the paper is meaningless because children can't enter contracts. Another said to me, "So what, no one actually reads that stuff before they sign it."

Sigh.

Systemic failure of education

My first year as a teacher is now over, and I learned a lot about the things that are happening in our schools. It was an eye opening experience, to say the least. For years, I had thought that the problem was incompetent teachers, and I was wrong. That isn't to say that all of the teachers are brilliant and hard working. No, there are good teachers and bad, hard working teachers and lazy ones, just like any other profession. The problems in our education system are widespread and systemic. I am not sure if the system is fixable. Let me explain where I saw the problems:

The parents:
Each and every parent has an outcome that they want for their kids. That desired outcome has NOTHING to do with educating their child. What they want is for their child to receive good grades, so that child can "get into a good college." The parents don't care if the child actually learns anything. The goal is good grades. If their child doesn't receive high marks, then they blame the teacher for picking on the child, claiming favoritism. Even when you show them that the exams are all multiple choice, and the correct answer was not selected by the child, the parent continues blaming the teacher. I even had one parent accuse me of substituting an incorrectly marked test for their child's test, so I could make her look bad.

The State legislature and State Department of Education:
The state continuously changes the standards that each course must meet, and the tests that the students must take at the end of the course in order for the child to demonstrate that he or she has met that standard. These benchmarks mirror common core. I don't necessarily have a problem with common core itself. As I have blogged in the past, the benchmarks make sense, it's just that there are so many things that the students must learn in only 189 days of class.

That brings me to my next point: There are 189 days of school. In those 189 days, the students spend 36 of them taking standardized tests that are required by the state. That does't count my tests, nor does it count other things like pep rallies and other school events. That leaves only about 140 days for actual learning to take place, and there were 83 benchmarks for the students in Biology last year. Benchmarks like:

• Analyze strategies for prevention, detection, and treatment of communicable and chronic diseases.
• Follow precisely a complex multistep procedure when carrying out experiments, taking measurements, or performing technical tasks, attending to special cases or exceptions defined in the text.
• Analyze the movement of matter and energy through the different biogeochemical cycles, including water and carbon.
• Identify the reactants, products, and basic functions of aerobic and anaerobic cellular respiration.

and so on. This coming school year, that has been expanded to 85 benchmarks. 

The school administration:

The schools take the upper half of the students who are doing well, and put them in an 'honors' course. This means that the kids who are below average in learning are segregated into 'regular' classes. At the end of the year, the students for honors and regular classes take the same state exam, so the honors classes have much higher test scores than the regular classes, and they get a bonus point towards their GPA ( an A gets you 5 points on a 4 point scale, instead of 4 points.)

This has the effect of making the regular kids look even more under performing than the honors kids.

The Federal government:

The Feds have a law which says that kids with a learning disability get 'accommodations' to helping them take exams. They are allowed to have extra study guides, extended time on tests, and other perks, but that the student's school transcripts and diplomas will not reflect the extra help. Granted, many of the students who receive them are truly in need of the extra help. The problem is that there are parents who are gaming the system, and in my opinion, these parents are not only hurting their own children, but are placing the children who are truly in need of these services at a disadvantage. 

The students:

Students have always tried to game the system, and get away with doing little. The students don't do their assignments. The problem is even worse. Things have gotten to the point where they will physically attack staff and teachers. Kids are doing and selling drugs on campus. Because of the threats of lawsuits, the achool administrators are afraid to do anything about it.

The teachers

There are teachers who, in response to the above, have simply given up. They give all of the kids at least a C. They don't enforce rules, and do all in their power to ensure that students and parents like them. Of course, there is standardized testing to worry about, but they do their best to feed students the answers to the tests at the end of the year, so they do well enough that the teacher keeps their job. Since there are no raises for teachers based on performance, there is no real incentive to excel. In fact, the only incentive is not to get hassled and to keep your job, and that only ensures that some work just hard enough not to get fired.

This year, I had the under performing half of the students. The state testing at the end of the year is graded on a scale of 1-5. A three indicates that the student was on grade level in the subject. A one indicates that they are significantly below grade level, and a five indicates that they are significantly above. The honors kids averaged a 3.82. My under performing students averaged a 2.73. Not bad, considering that many of those kids have not done well on state testing in previous years. I only had three kids score a 1: two of them failed the final exams in two other classes, and the third of them doesn't really speak English all that well. 54% of my kids scored a 3 or higher on the exam, and that makes me happy. 

I have been hired for next year to teach Biology to tenth graders, and Chemistry to the Eleventh graders. I will again be teaching the under performing kids, and  did so well that I am losing five of them to the honors track.I wish them well.

As for the system, it is broken, but I will refuse to hand out passing grades just to keep everyone happy. 

The problem

My boss, the vice principal, threw me under the bus today. Let me start by explaining that I have been evaluated through observation and the test scores of my students. My evaluation has come back, and I have been rated as being among the top 10% of teachers in the school. 

I have a student in my class who has been a constant discipline problem. It began in September when this student got a few zeroes for not turning in assignments. She asked me for extra credit, and I explained to her that I do not do extra credit: you either meet the standard, or you don't. I gave her the opportunity to do the assignments that she missed, and she refused, saying that those assignments were stupid. She then posted on Twitter things like: "Fuck my science teacher, he won't give extra credit" and "I'm gonna get rid of my science teacher." I wrote her up for that, and reported it to the principal. Her parents requested a meeting with the vice principal, and immediately went on the attack.

That was when I found out that these particular parents and their children do this every year. They pick one teacher, and spend the year making that teacher's life miserable. In the past 6 months, these parents have filed over 100 complaints against me. For example: Last month, this student punched another student in the stomach while a third student held the punchee's arms behind his back. I gave her a referral, and the parents wanted to know why I did that instead of emailing them, and filed a complaint.

In one of the many parent-teacher conferences I have had with this parent and the vice-principal, he accused me of giving his daughter bad grades because I didn't like her. I showed him some of her work, to show that she turns in shoddy work. He then said that I was probably just putting her name on things that I had done poorly myself, in order to frame his daughter. He then told me that I was a damned liar, and that he was going to get me fired. Not wanting to sit there and be abused, I got up to leave, and was told to sit down by the vice-principal. I was later told that we have to listen to and take whatever a parent or student wants to say to us, and getting up from a parent/teacher conference is cause for termination.

That brings us to today. He was angry because she got detention for calling me stupid and for sleeping in class. He was also angry because his daughter has a D in my class, and because I was making her write reports in Biology class, claiming that I am not a writing teacher and have no authority to make students write in a science class.

He asked the vice principal to move her from my class because he was afraid that I was trying to hurt his daughter. This is the second time in two weeks that he has claimed this. Note that not once have I been near her in anything but a classroom setting, along with 25 other students. The parent stood up, pointed to me, and said "Don't you fucking eyeball me, boy." and then stormed from the room. The vice principal told me that if I can't get along with this parent, I will be terminated.

I went to the other vice principal about an hour later, and I told him that if that child is not removed from my class by Monday, I am resigning. They removed the student from my class, but I just don't know if I can teach. I don't think that this career is for me. The problem with the education system in this country is this:

Parents who think that their little snowflake is an 'A' student, and anyone who says otherwise is a liar who is picking on them. Then they threaten a lawsuit, and the school backs down, because teachers can't sue, but parents can. As a teacher, I was told by other teachers that the only way to stay out of trouble and keep your job is to give nearly everyone at least a C, try not to report students for anything, and keep the parents happy. Who cares if the kids learn, the parents don't want smart kids, they just want kids with good grades.

School behavior

Here is a video of a black student attacking a white one, all the while making racial comments. The school is a short distance from mine, and I actually know a few of the students that attend the school, including a student who appears in the background of this video.


As a first year high school teacher, I can tell you that I have seen this sort of thing myself. Last month, a black student called a white one an "ignorant cracker" and a "honky." The white student replied that the black student should "remember that it wasn't that long ago that I would have been your boss, and you would be picking my cotton."

The white student was suspended, the black one was not disciplined. After the incident, teachers were told by the vice principal that racism and racial comments would not be tolerated, and that those of us here in the south (VP is from up north) needed to learn that redneck, racist attitudes of the people in the south would have to change.

I am too new to have pointed out to him that his comments and the way the incident were handled were racism and discrimination at their finest.

Parents are more immature than kids

I have been quite busy. The main thing that has been taking up my time is the new career as a High School Science Teacher. I have been working so much that I don't have time to read blogs, let alone write one. Let me explain how my week typically goes:

I spend about 20 hours a week teaching class.
I attend about 2 hours a week in training.
I spend another 10-15 hours a week grading papers.
I takes me about 4 hours to plan the next week's classes.
Then I spend about 3 hours a week on parent conferences.
I spend 3-4 evenings a week attending High School sporting events (JV and Varsity Football, Girl's Volleyball, Swimming, and Golf.)


This was supposed to be a part time job (I only get paid for 20 hours a week). That leads me to my troubles of the past month:

I had a problem with many of my students not turning in their work. Those that were turning it in, were not really trying all that hard. In fact, more than half of my students had earned a grade that was below a C. I was desperately looking for a solution. I finally found one: There is a school policy stating that any student receiving below a C in a core course (Math, Science, English) will be placed on mandatory tutoring.

So what I did was establish two days a week as tutoring days, and the sessions would last for one hour. Any student who had below a 50% would have to attend both days each week, and any student who had a grade between 50 and 70% would have to attend one. During the sessions, the students would be working on and turning in any assignment that they had received an F or a Zero on.

It worked even better than I had hoped. Every single student increased their grade as a result tutoring. My classes went from having a 62% average with 23 F's, to a 74% and only 4 F's. There are only 10 students left with a D or an F. 4 students went from an F to a B, and all but 7 of the students increased by at least a full letter grade. I did all of these tutoring sessions off the clock, and didn't get paid for a minute of them. Good work, right?

The parents of one of my students are furious, as is their child. This child doesn't want to sit in tutoring and do work. She is demanding that the student be given extra credit to take home and bring back. I explained to them that I don't do extra credit, and if the students would just do the work as assigned, that is sufficient to get a passing grade. The parents are emailing the Principal and the Superintendent and claiming that I am punishing their child by holding them after school and giving a bad grade. This is reflected in the student's attitude. The student called me stupid, refused to do any further assignments, threw her books across the room, and then stormed out of the classroom by kicking the door open while declaring that she was going to report me to the principal and to her parents.

We scheduled a parent/teacher conference. (For the third time this year with this parent.) I explained that I just grade the homework as done or not done, and the exams, which are multiple choice, and there is no teacher discretion built into my grading plan. I set the course up this way so no one could claim that I was being unfair. The parent still insists that I am giving their student a D just to punish them. The father used as an example that I reduced his daughter's grade because she turned in an assignment late, as per class policy. (My class policy is 10% off for each day late). He said that the paper was turned in the next morning, which was only 18 hours late. I asked him what happens if you mail in your tax return 18 hours late. Then I showed him his wife's signature and his daughter's signature on the classroom policy paper, where they acknowledged that policy. He was furious. When I mentioned the student's temper tantrum from the other day, the parent told me to my face in front of the Vice-principal that I was "a damned liar." They have threatened to get an attorney.

It has since come out that the student is secretly taking photos and video in class to use as proof that I am not teaching to the student's and parents' standards. If this student would only pay attention in class instead of trying to prove me wrong, they would be earning a better grade than a D in my course.

This morning, the student tweeted out "Fuck my science teacher. We r gonna get him fired." Don't think that I am not giving that particular tweet to the Principal.

In other news, while proctoring the SAT, a student showed up without photo ID. No photo ID, no test. Those are the rules. The teachers don't make the rules for the SAT, the College Board does. The parent immediately launches into a tirade about what an asshole the teacher is, and how the teachers are personally responsible for ruining his child's chances at a future because they won't let him in without ID, and now the kid can't get into college without his SAT scores.

The parents are more immature than the kids. Teaching is easy. It is dealing with the students and the parents that is hard.

View of a teacher with a month on the job

I have been teaching at the college level for over 8 years. I just started teaching high school this year. A month into my job as a high school science teacher, and I have a few observations:

This job requires far more hours of my time than I am paid for. I work at home for about 3 hours per night, planning lessons, designing lab activities, and grading papers. I'm hoping that next year it will be easier, because the lessons will all be planned out.

The kids, for the most part do good work. Very few of them do great work. Currently, only 3% of my students have an A. The majority of the class are average students, with about 30% of them earning a B, and about 35% of them have a C. There are about 20% that have earned a D, and if it were up to me, a D would not be a passing grade. Finally, 12% or so are failing my class.

The students that are failing my class are also failing others. I have one student that is failing my class along with 3 others. He is failing Geometry, Biology, English, and History. He has a D in an elective, and an A in art. I would not take bets on his ever making it through high school.

The number one reason why kids are failing? They don't turn in any assignments.

Number two? Cheating.
I caught three kids so far cheating by cutting and pasting WikiPedia pages into their report. One of them actually turned in a wiki page that I had written. Plagiarism is cheating, and anyone caught cheating in my class gets a discipline referral and an automatic zero for the assignment.

Number three? Just not studying. I can see who logs into the class website to retrieve class notes and power points. There are quite a few that never log in, have never checked out a textbook, and cannot understand why they get a 40% on the test.

I email weekly progress notes that include a copy of their grade book marks to every parent. If your child has a D or an F, I email you personally and notify you that your child is doing poorly. In many cases, it helps. In some, it does not. On average, I schedule 3-4 face to face parent/teacher conferences a week.

Still, there are students who have a 45% average in my class.

That is American Education. Don't blame the teachers. There are teachers that phone it in, but there are many parents that just don't care how their kids do.

Common Core

So there are people who claim that Common Core is anti-American. I posted on this once before, and it was pointed out that the complaints are all about math and American History. To clear up any confusion, here are the required Common Core benchmarks for 8th grade American history. Here are just a few of the 112 benchmarks that are required for the course:

SS.8.A.3.3:  Recognize the contributions of the Founding Fathers (John Adams, Sam Adams, Benjamin Franklin, John Hancock, Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, George Mason, George Washington) during American Revolutionary efforts. Examples may also include, but are not limited to, Thomas Paine, John Jay, Peter Salem.

 SS.8.A.3.9:  Evaluate the structure, strengths, and weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation and its aspects that led to the Constitutional Convention.

 SS.8.A.3.11: Analyze support and opposition (Federalists, Federalist Papers, AntiFederalists, Bill of Rights) to ratification of the U.S. Constitution.

 SS.8.A.3.12: Examine the influences of George Washington's presidency in the formation of the new nation.

 SS.8.A.3.13: Explain major domestic and international economic, military, political, and socio-cultural events of John Adams's presidency.

 SS.8.A.3.14: Explain major domestic and international economic, military, political, and socio-cultural events of Thomas Jefferson's presidency.

The Common Core, at least as adopted here, doesn't tell teachers HOW to teach, but merely what the children should be able to do at the end of the course.

I think that people are making a big deal out of nothing. Here is a link to the Florida version of common core. Get the facts for yourself, don't fall for politically spun hyperbole and urban legends.

Another career change

I have decided that I need to find something to do to occupy my time during retirement. So what I did was apply to be licensed as a Florida teacher. The state claims to have a need for teachers, due to a shortage.

I applied for my certification in Biology and Health. I got a letter from the state saying that a Paramedic with 25 years of experience doesn't have the training in First Aid in order to be a Health teacher. I thought this was ridiculous, so I appealed.

I am now approved to teach young minds in the fields of Biology, Science, and Health.