From Pop to the Top - Funtastic Adventures in the Summer Sun!

[Poolrat]

Adding Carter and his family to my thoughts and prayers.

 

[MeMom]

Congratulations to Wigd and Shocker on the birth of their new little grandson.
Wonder how long it will be before we see him in his first Mouse Ears?

 

[cherokeemamma]

Congratulations Wigd and Shocker! How wonderful!

I will be praying for Carter and his family, too!

Memom, It sounds like they are really making you earn your pay this year.
How much time do you get off for Thanksgiving? We get all of next week off...YIPPEE! Looking forward to being at home. Have a great day!

TTFN
Darlene

 

[kschafer]

This post is directed to my DIS friends that are teachers.

I'm writing a paper on the "No Child Left Behind Act" I'm doing my research and just wanted some insight from current teachers. I want to have more background knowledge on the subject.

My questions for the teachers are:

How does NCLB affect your classroom?
Do you still look forward to teaching everyday when you have to follow a cookie-cutter curriculum?
Does the curriculum actually make a difference on how the students learn? Are they excited or do they get bored with repeating same thing every day?

Any insight you can give me, will help writing this paper a lot easier.

I just found your question and not sure if my respone will help now but thought I would throw it out...

I am in a slightly different position than many other teachers. I supervise and track progress of high school students who are working on credit recovery. These kids are the ones who have failed classes in the regular classroom and for various reasons, have chosen to make up the lost credit by working on online courses. So I am not directly affected by curriculum mandates since the company that provides the courses are responsible for that.

However, as you can imagine, I see all kinds of students from less than desirable backgrounds. This is what I think programs like NCLB fail to recognize. To say that every student will perform at a certain level is fundamentally flawed. My students are dealing with home lives filled with drama, some forced upon them and some by choice. My kids are dealing with abuse issues, drug problems, teen parenting challenges, economic stresses, etc. Many of these kids are helping support their families financially, raising siblings or their own children, or are simply on their own without family suport at all. Many others do not have supportive parents where education is a value that is reinforced and attendance is a severe problem.

Honestly, in my position, I have to celebrate any progress that students make, knowing that about half of them are not going to make it to the finish line (I often have to remind myself that this group is not representative of our school as a whole or it might become quite depressing)

I haven't been teaching as long as a lot of people but even in my 10 years, I can say the pendulum swings. Ideas and strategies come and go and return once again. I am not necessarily opposed to ideas and suggestions of ways to improve teaching methods and trying to reach as many students as possible. But there are too many factors out of the control of schools. At my level, students have the control of whether they will or will not. I can provide opportunities, I can cheer them on, I can help them where I can; but I cannot do it for them nor can I give them the motivation to do it for themselves.

Hope that little diatribe helps some!

 

[DWGal210]

Love the Jiminy pictures! There's a character you don't see often!

Congrats Wigd and Shocker!!!!!

 

[MagicShell]

It doesn't look like Bella was too upset by being captured by a cricket. Those are very cute pictures.

 

[Lovemy3babes]

Isn't this a nice motto?

Yes.

TGIF MeMom!!!

Congratulations Wigd and Shocker!

 

[LoveMyTwoPrincesses]

I love that Bella was captured! Thankfully she doen't look upset about it.

I hope you have a relaxing weekend!

 

[Stasieki]

I will be praying for Carter and his family. I couldn't imagine going through that, but you are right, there are so many advances these days. Hopefully, a simple procedure will be all it takes.

 

[disneyfan61]

Loving the updates MeMom. I LOVE that Live, Laugh Relax shirt
And I also remember those Laugh In shows

Praying for Brooklynns friend.

 

[hollisterluva92]

Poor Brooklyn, I hated having to give kids shots when I worked in the hospital last year. Love the updates! Today was my first day of work at Target and I of course, forgot to look for the Mickey Christmas products! I'll check tomorrow before work!

 

[MeMom]

Congratulations Wigd and Shocker! How wonderful!

I will be praying for Carter and his family, too!

Memom, It sounds like they are really making you earn your pay this year.
How much time do you get off for Thanksgiving? We get all of next week off...YIPPEE! Looking forward to being at home. Have a great day!

TTFN
Darlene

Yeah, if we got paid according to behavior issues, I'd probably be making some big bucks. The aggravating thing is, there are teachers in our system that only have 8 - 10 kids in their classes, while I have 20. I just lost a sweet, quiet little guy, so it was 21. I have three with certified issues, and a couple more who like to dance around on the outskirts of trouble.

I have to work Monday and Tuesday. We're going to try to have some fun during those two days. I was thinking we might make 'hoecakes' and make our own butter. They would enjoy that. I'll see how they do on Monday and then decide.

We have had different Thanksgiving holidays throughout the years. Sometimes we have gotten off only Thursday and Friday, sometimes W-Th-F, and one year, we got off the whole week! We took a Disney trip then, so I love that one!

I just found your question and not sure if my respone will help now but thought I would throw it out...

I am in a slightly different position than many other teachers. I supervise and track progress of high school students who are working on credit recovery. These kids are the ones who have failed classes in the regular classroom and for various reasons, have chosen to make up the lost credit by working on online courses. So I am not directly affected by curriculum mandates since the company that provides the courses are responsible for that.

However, as you can imagine, I see all kinds of students from less than desirable backgrounds. This is what I think programs like NCLB fail to recognize. To say that every student will perform at a certain level is fundamentally flawed. My students are dealing with home lives filled with drama, some forced upon them and some by choice. My kids are dealing with abuse issues, drug problems, teen parenting challenges, economic stresses, etc. Many of these kids are helping support their families financially, raising siblings or their own children, or are simply on their own without family suport at all. Many others do not have supportive parents where education is a value that is reinforced and attendance is a severe problem.

Honestly, in my position, I have to celebrate any progress that students make, knowing that about half of them are not going to make it to the finish line (I often have to remind myself that this group is not representative of our school as a whole or it might become quite depressing)

I haven't been teaching as long as a lot of people but even in my 10 years, I can say the pendulum swings. Ideas and strategies come and go and return once again. I am not necessarily opposed to ideas and suggestions of ways to improve teaching methods and trying to reach as many students as possible. But there are too many factors out of the control of schools. At my level, students have the control of whether they will or will not. I can provide opportunities, I can cheer them on, I can help them where I can; but I cannot do it for them nor can I give them the motivation to do it for themselves.

Hope that little diatribe helps some!

Just as it is a flawed idea to think that I could play basketball as well as Trent, no matter how much I practiced or how much you beat me or assessed me. You'd think people at the top would be at least smart enough to know that, yet they continue to flog the coaches (teachers) because of the players' (students') performances.

As for the strategies, same stuff different names. Same names different stuff. It all comes through and goes away and thousands of dollars are spent on books and training. We put the books on shelves for two years, and then they tell us to throw them out. It's such a waste.

This is what would help at our school - if we kept some of our kids until 7 p.m. Monday through Thursday. We could have a snack with them and play normal kid stuff for a while, then do homework in a pleasant, positive environment. Then we'd feed them a healthy meal in a happy setting, read to them, interact with them in positive, productive ways, and then put them on a bus in time to go home and go to bed, tuning out so many negative influences around them. They would not have watched TV shows they shouldn't be seeing or heard fighting and filthy language all evening. They wouldn't have gone home to an empty house and eaten a bowl of cereal and leftover Halloween candy for dinner. They would have been nurtured and smiled at and shown proper manners and respect for others. If we did that for a year with some of these kids, I think their grades would skyrocket on all these charts we keep on them, and I have a feeling attitudes might improve significantly.

We have so many kids crying out for attention in so many ways. My new little guy has many issues. He does not like to go to his specialty classes, and gets sent to the office almost every day from them. Yesterday, he refused to go to Art, so I just took him back to the room with me and didn't try to fight him on it. I told him he had to draw a picture, and I gave him a new box of crayons to do it with. What he brought back looked like something a 2-3 year old would draw. I had no idea what it was, so I pulled out my standard, 'Tell me about your nice picture'. Come to find out, it was a turkey. I asked him if he wanted to give it to our assistant principal, since he spends a lot of time with her. He said yes, and I helped him spell her name. I wrote a note on it telling her what it was, because there was no way to know. He took it and put it on her desk and came back to the room. We spent the rest of the hour reading and playing a Math game. He beat me, gosh darn it! He was the best Race to 100 player in the room! After that, the rest of his day was better. I walked him out to his car in the afternoon, and his dad dreaded seeing me, of course, knowing it was not good. I was happy to start his weekend off on a good note by telling him what a good day we had had.

I can't do that every day, but these kids just have so many needs, and if we put more money into people than into stuff, I think we could make more progress than we do with all this silly testing.

Love the Jiminy pictures! There's a character you don't see often!

Congrats Wigd and Shocker!!!!!

Yeah, he likes to be out of the limelight and hang out back at Rafiki's a lot.

It doesn't look like Bella was too upset by being captured by a cricket. Those are very cute pictures.

I got her the split second she was captured. It didn't last long.

Yes.

TGIF MeMom!!!

Congratulations Wigd and Shocker!

Yes, thank heavens Fridays do come along to reward us on a regular basis.

I love that Bella was captured! Thankfully she doen't look upset about it.

I hope you have a relaxing weekend!

She allowed a picture, but then made her escape.

I plan to scrub the kitchen floor, for what little good that does, and work on some stuff for our Japan/Culture Day activity. Today holds no obligations. Church tomorrow. Probably some Hallmark Christmas movies.

I will be praying for Carter and his family. I couldn't imagine going through that, but you are right, there are so many advances these days. Hopefully, a simple procedure will be all it takes.

Maybe Jill can update us soon.

Loving the updates MeMom. I LOVE that Live, Laugh Relax shirt
And I also remember those Laugh In shows

Praying for Brooklynns friend.

I'm trying to get a bunch into this report, so I'm going picture heavy until we reach page 250.

Good old Laugh In.

Poor Brooklyn, I hated having to give kids shots when I worked in the hospital last year. Love the updates! Today was my first day of work at Target and I of course, forgot to look for the Mickey Christmas products! I'll check tomorrow before work!

Brooklynn HATES shots.

Good luck at Target. You should stay very busy over the next few weeks!

 

[MeMom]

So, let's go back to summer in Animal Kingdom on this cool Saturday morning.

A few more things from the Out of the Wild.

The idea was beginning to formulate about a Halloween 2010 costume.

Safari Minnie and Mickey. So cute!

My students would snicker their way through me reading this.

I seriously thought about a purchase here.

How often do you get the chance to buy a warthog?

Then it was off to see some goats.

Not a goat.

Not a goat again.

One more peek through here for my favorite little shopping girl.

Okay, time to move on.

More later. Going to start a load of clothes.

 

[wigdoutdismom]

Good morning MeMom! Was going to comment on one of those goat pictures butt didn't think it would be in very good taste.....

I will comment on the hour you spent with your student though.
I applaud you.
It would have been so easy to send him to art. Just for the break.
You know you needed it, and deserved it.
You chose to do what was best for the child.
I'm not sure I would have made the same choice.
You are such a good teacher!

Thanks everyone for the kind words about the baby! We are thrilled with our new DIS boy!

 

[momof2TNboys]

Good Saturday morning! Congratulations to Wigd and Shocker!! I am sure they are enjoying their new bundle of joy. I will keep Carter in my prayers. My husband has congenital heart disease and is followed at Vanderbilt. There are amazing things that can be done now. Love the pics of AK.

 

[Charleston Princess]

Happy Saturday!!!

Thoughts and prayers for Carter and his family!

I laughed out loud when I read about Jiminy Cricket consoling Brooklyn over the eating of her sister.

Okay, so your pictures of the turtle made me think of a conversation I had with Chelsea the other night. I have to put in a disclaimer that she really is a very bright girl, but sometimes she is completely ditzy.

Chelsea: So, what do you call a turtle with no shell?
Me: Dead.
Chelsea: Mom!!!!
Me: Well, he would be. Turtles can't live without their shells. It's part of their bodies.
Chelsea: No. It's not. They can take it off if they need to.
Me: Um, it's not a sweater, Chelsea.
Chelsea: Sure it is. There are holes for its head and arms and everything.

This went on for awhile. I still don't know if she was pulling my leg or honestly believes a turtle's shell is like an article of clothing.

 

[kschafer]

Just as it is a flawed idea to think that I could play basketball as well as Trent, no matter how much I practiced or how much you beat me or assessed me. You'd think people at the top would be at least smart enough to know that, yet they continue to flog the coaches (teachers) because of the players' (students') performances.

that's a funny comment because I recently had the same conversation with someone but with swimming as my example. We had to take 1 quarter of swimming in PE in high school but luckily for me passing was participation only. If they had said I couldn't graduate until I could beat a certain time, I might still be in that water!

My supervising principal recently made a similar comment to me about raising kids. She said in our town, we will never reach 100% unless we were to go as far as becoming a boarding school and act as full-time parents for some of our kids

Glad you had a good end to your week with your challenge boy, that always gives a little lift doesn't it!

 

[Poolrat]

We have so many kids crying out for attention in so many ways. My new little guy has many issues. He does not like to go to his specialty classes, and gets sent to the office almost every day from them. Yesterday, he refused to go to Art, so I just took him back to the room with me and didn't try to fight him on it. I told him he had to draw a picture, and I gave him a new box of crayons to do it with. What he brought back looked like something a 2-3 year old would draw. I had no idea what it was, so I pulled out my standard, 'Tell me about your nice picture'. Come to find out, it was a turkey. I asked him if he wanted to give it to our assistant principal, since he spends a lot of time with her. He said yes, and I helped him spell her name. I wrote a note on it telling her what it was, because there was no way to know. He took it and put it on her desk and came back to the room. We spent the rest of the hour reading and playing a Math game. He beat me, gosh darn it! He was the best Race to 100 player in the room! After that, the rest of his day was better. I walked him out to his car in the afternoon, and his dad dreaded seeing me, of course, knowing it was not good. I was happy to start his weekend off on a good note by telling him what a good day we had had.

That is what makes you one Great Lady!!! That child will remember that moment for years to come. Hopefully that little bit will make him easier to deal with as the year goes on.

 

[Poolrat]

Happy Saturday!!!

Okay, so your pictures of the turtle made me think of a conversation I had with Chelsea the other night. I have to put in a disclaimer that she really is a very bright girl, but sometimes she is completely ditzy.

Chelsea: So, what do you call a turtle with no shell?
Me: Dead.
Chelsea: Mom!!!!
Me: Well, he would be. Turtles can't live without their shells. It's part of their bodies.
Chelsea: No. It's not. They can take it off if they need to.
Me: Um, it's not a sweater, Chelsea.
Chelsea: Sure it is. There are holes for its head and arms and everything.

This went on for awhile. I still don't know if she was pulling my leg or honestly believes a turtle's shell is like an article of clothing.

We had a moment like that when my husband burned himself in the kitchen and told my DD to get some ice. I guess she panicked because what came out of her mouth was "Where do we keep the ice?"

 

[Mic_n_Min]

Oops! Just realized I am 16 pages behind! Time to catch up! I've been busy getting ready for Christmas before a big surgery in 9 days that will sideline me for 8 weeks. Before then, I have been busy with photo sessions. I had one with 10-day old twins yesterday morning- so cute! You can see the pics here if you want to: AngBarclay Photography

Time to get caught up! Love seeing some of the pics from July 6th- the girls are so cute with the characters in Epcot!