So, today's topic will be educational in origin.  Specifically, the idea that if a school is failing, firing the people who have been there for, like, ever is the way to fix it.  This has been dramatically referred to as the 'nuclear option' by some.

The first to be fired, if this option is engaged, is the administration of a school.  This is a bad idea.  If it is the administration's fault that the school is failing, there should be some sort of evidence.  Complaints from parents, teachers filing grievances, students being suspended well above, or well below, standard rates.  Before firing someone who has dedicated a considerable portion of their time, energy, and life force, the benefit of the doubt should be extended to them.

Principals are put on an 'action plan' when their school is rated as failing.  But what are these action plans based on?  Some sort of research-based principal actions?  Best-practices administrating?  I understand if you have a chronically under-performing school (and for the record, I only understand high schools), then the administration definitely needs a hard looking-at.  But having one bad year should not trigger some sort of untested overreaction that throws the whole school community into a tizzy.

It seems that after they fire the principal, if things do not improve, they fire all the teachers, then let them re-apply for their jobs. Only 50% will be allowed to come back.  How does eliminating all the people who know best how to get work out of the students help the students?  Again, each teacher should be evaluated on their own merits.  Who is to say that 50% of the teachers are the problem? Or that any of them are the problem?

My own personal experience (12 years teaching as of this post's date) is that the children decide if they are going to learn the material or not.  I do not run a dog-and-pony show in my classroom.  I lecture, using PowerPoints so students can read and hear what is being taught, along with guided notes I create that follow the slide shows.  I, and all the other teachers I know, do my job.  It is up to the students to realize that they must do theirs.  And who makes them come to that realization?  The parents/guardians!!

If a teacher is not doing their job, then yes, they must be fired.  A principal too.  But should we be lose our jobs because parents are not administering consequences on their children for failing classes?  I don't think so, and I hope none of you think so either.

CURMUDGUCATION: TeachStrong's Nine Steps (To Teacher Awesomeness)

Sharing this one because it is awesome and informative.



CURMUDGUCATION: TeachStrong's Nine Steps (To Teacher Awesomeness): We've already discussed who and what the new #TeachStrong campaign might be . But I still think it's only fair to look at their nin...

Pagan?

So, new pagan or old?  I've been studying, in a very haphazard way, pagan religions, focusing on Wicca but not exclusively, for about 20 years now, and I still have no idea how to label myself.  I can outline a few beliefs, I have what I consider to be a set of morals based on those beliefs, and I try to live by those morals as much as I can.  I get lazy sometimes, like not cleaning out that icky but highly recyclable container holding the no-longer recognizable former foodstuffs, and throwing it away instead.  But I also bend over to pick up trash in the hallway, or in a parking lot, and I recycle as much as I can at the school where I work.

New pagan or old?  Over the 20 years I have never actually been to a ritual, joined a group, or done any dedications, self or otherwise.  It has been a struggle because I want the benefits of being a part of a community, but I want one wherein I can be true to myself.  I have been to the last three Central North Carolina Pagan Pride Days festivals, but have not made the kinds of connections I am looking for, probably due to my own silly shyness.

New pagan or old?  I have started many books on Wicca and Paganism, but never finished any of them.  It seems I lack dedication to the process.  But is the process really all that important, at least to me?  I feel a little bad about not finishing any of these self-imposed studies, but maybe I do not finish them because some part of me knows that what I am looking for is not in any book.

New pagan or old?  I find myself thinking more and more about my religion these past few years.  I yearn to meet regularly with like minded individuals, maybe even do group rituals.  But rural USA is not quite the place for finding such things, especially here in the bible belt.

What I believe:

• The divine is not just one gender.  It is both male and female, though they are two sides of the same coin.
• The divine comes from life, not the other way around.  As life has developed (I can not speak for anywhere but here on Earth!), the divine has also developed.  As life got more complex, so to did the divine.
• The Goddess represents the raw materials needed for life to exist, so therefore she is matter.
• The God represents the energy needed for life to exist, therefore he is energy.
• Since energy and matter are equivalent (energy = mass X the speed of light squared) I conclude that the God and Goddess are different forms of the same thing.
• Since we have both matter and energy in us, we have both the male and the female in each if us.
• Nature is sacred, only nature (WHO wrote this quote originally?  I have found it all over, first saw it on an Omnia video )

So, do these beliefs make me a Pantheist?  Something seems a bit missing to me in Pantheism.  Just a bit.  I think I want the divine to be more personal than what I think it is to a Pantheist.  But just because I want something to be does not make it so.

Also, I really like what little is known about the Celtic gods and goddesses.  Either as real personalities or archetypes to help us focus prayers/magic, they speak to me more than Norse or Greek or Roman or any other pantheon I know of.  But then again,I do not know of all the pantheons out there.

So, old pagan?  New pagan? Neo-pagan?  Whatever I am, there it is.

Thanks for reading.

So, second entry not associated with Samhain's Sirens.  Let's see where this takes me...

I want to blog about being sick and being a teacher.  Anyone in the teaching business knows the old meme about how much easier it is to just go in sick rather than coming up with plans that are worth the paper they are printed on.  I have been sick since last Friday (it is Tuesday now).  Over these days I have taught 3 separate concepts in Physical Science and two in Physics.  If I had taken this time off, would the children have learned any of the things I taught?

The problem with taking a day off is that only a few of the children can actually learn a new concept without the teacher there to give the lesson.  Those top readers could just read something, say a textbook (if we had updated ones), and be given some practice problems/questions and from those two things figure out the concept well enough to not need much intervention from the teacher.  Sometimes a sick day falls on a review day, but with block schedules the norm in my district I rarely have a whole day spent reviewing.  Just not enough days to spend doing that.  Plus my reviews often involve active participation (modified jeopardy or other whole-class games of review).

I hate leaving plans that involve just watching a movie.  I show October Sky for both Physical Science and Physics, an inspirational film approved for these classes.  It gives the kids a break from the rigors of the Physics part of Physical Science, makes them feel like they are getting a reward, and can be inspirational (have you seen the film?).  Plus I make sure they watch it by giving a list of questions and grading them.  But I still get the nagging feeling that they are simply not learning...especially when I get back answer sheets that are half-filled.  If I am there I can just send a kid out of the classroom with a sheet of practice problems if they are not watching.  The practice problems are graded and that grade added in for the movie questions grade.  But when I use the movie to fill in my sick-day plans, it simply gives me a tinge of guilt.

As for emergency plans, well, those are only for extreme emergencies, like the teacher getting in an accident on the way to work.  They are not for sick days!

OK, griping over.  Now, what can be done about this problem?  Maybe nothing.  Maybe if I had just taken Friday off, I would have been better by Monday instead of feeling progressively worse and needing tomorrow off.  But then the movie would have been Friday, and the students would have three days to forget whatever I taught Thursday.  Really, being sick as a teacher is a no-win situation.

And that's all I feel like typing about that.  Hope you have enjoyed reading this.