Bullies Suck

What is it about human nature that causes people to feel the need to dominate over someone weaker than themselves? Is it old evolutionary biology and survival of the fittest? Is it a need to feel powerful and controlling? In our American society the people that are admired most tend to be the rich and powerful--those who dominate over others. Value needs to be placed on every unique person, for their own unique talents. Too bad society doesn't see that.

I get to see evidence of bullying often at the elementary school and it isn't just with a certain age of kids. I know that you can find evidence of bullying when little toddlers are playing together: one kid steals the other's Matchbox car or smacks the playmate when they don't get their way. But I think the worst kind of bullying happens starting in about 4th grade and lasts until midway through high school. The type of bullying may change from physical to more verbal as kids get older, but it is still bullying. Of course bullying happens when you're an adult also, but I'm going to just focus on kids for this post.

Bullies target kids who they perceive as weaker or different from them. I see a lot of kids bullying the sensitive boys: the boys who cry easy or who feel things deeper than others.  I also see kids bullying the kids that are different from others like the kids with Asperger's Syndrome. The girls tend to be snippy and verbally abusive to other girls who might be the shy and quiet ones. Usually bullies make their attack without any real reason, except that they see their target as a victim. 

What makes me furious is knowing that the bullying happens and no single adult puts a stop to it. It seems that the adults out on recess duty just look the other way, hoping a different duty teacher will do something about it. They don't want to confront the bullies because it is a hard situation. But that is our job!! It can't continue. These kids need to learn how to interact with others in a positive way, not in a dominating way and we adults are the ones to model that behavior. Tell the bully that you know what they're doing and that it will not be tolerated. Of course, it helps if you have a principal who has a zero tolerance attitude on bullying. If so, send the bully to the principal, but if not, deal with it yourself! There are many incidences at recess where I've witnessed bullying taking place and I know another teacher has seen it too, but walks the other direction, leaving it for me to address.

Many schools or individual classrooms do have an anti-bullying programs in effect. Our district does have one. The key is to enforce the program instead of looking the other way in hopes that someone else will take care of it.

2/27 P.S.  Neighborhood bullies suck also!

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Neat

Middle of Winter

February, when the days of winter seem endless and no amount of wistful recollecting can bring back any air of summer.

-Shirley Jackson, Raising Demons, 1956

I always have a difficult time in the middle of winter. It's the February Blues for me.  I'm tired of it being cold (since November) and I think I tend to hibernate a bit. I stay indoors as much as possible, switching walks outside to walks on the treadmill (not the most motivating way to stay active). I have to do lunch recess duty when the wind is blowing fiercely cold, causing the wind chill factor to make it miserable even in the sunshine. I thought that getting out to go on a hike on Monday with some friends would help the blues, but it was a cool, windy morning on a trail that I doubt I'll go on again.  The Mitchell Trail wanders through the burned area between two mountains for a while and I'm sure it was beautiful before the fire. All that is left now are broken off tree trunks and deadfall. Maybe in the spring when the plants start to bloom, it will be prettier. Then the trail starts to wind up the mountain in a series of switchbacks. Not my idea of a fun hike, but it did get my heart rate up. A friend had a GPS watch and recorded a hike of about 3.25 miles in 90 minutes. At least we finished off the morning by going to the Coffee House Cafe for lunch and a small birthday celebration.  That was fun.

So I do still get out of the house, even though it is February, but I do have to force myself. This morning I went to the dentist for my cleaning and then met some friends at Starbucks. I love these Wednesday mornings since they give me the charge to make it through the rest of the week. Even if it is cold outside.

The turtle is still hibernating, but she does a whole lot of sleep walking. I guess it would be called "sleep digging" since she wanders to another part of the tank and digs into the bark as deep as she can go. Once she wakes up, I guess that will mean spring has arrived. Our household's version of Punxsutawney Phil.

One thing I've noticed is that my daffodils and hyacinths are peeking out of the ground on the sunny side of the house. At least they think it is time to wake up from this winter and I look forward to seeing their pretty colors blooming in the yard.

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Neat

A Sweet Song for Valentine's Day

Give me more loving than I've ever had
Make it all better when I'm feeling sad
Tell me that I'm special even when I know I'm not
Make it feel good when it hurts so bad
Barely get mad
I'm so glad I found you
I love being around you
You make it easy

It's as easy as 1-2-1-2-3-4
There's only
ONE thing
TWO do
THREE words
FOUR you...
I love you
There's only
ONE way
TWO say
Those THREE words
And that's what I'll do...
I love you

Give me more loving from the very start
Piece me back together when I fall apart
Tell me things you never even tell your closest friends
Make it feel good when it hurts so bad
The best that I've had
And I'm so glad I found you
I love being around you
You make it easy

It's as easy as 1-2-1-2-3-4
There's only
ONE thing
TWO do
THREE words
FOUR you...
I love you
There's only
ONE way
TWO say
Those THREE words
And that's what I'll do...
I love you
I love you

(repeat)

Lyrics Link Here
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Neat

Does GATE Education Really Work?

I've been doing a lot of thinking about GATE education, also known as Gifted and Talented education, and public education in general. 

When I was teaching in the public schools many years ago, I had a different viewpoint about student groupings than I do now. Back then (in the later 1990's) I believed that all classrooms should be a heterogeneous mixture of students. That all students, regardless of learning levels or abilities, should be grouped into one class. It makes it challenging to a teacher since s/he has to provide appropriate education to all levels of students, from the lower-leveled student to the gifted student.  All students learn at a different pace anyway, and so I felt that I was up to that challenge. If you ask me, and probably if you asked my former principals, I think I did a pretty good job meeting everyone's needs. But I did teach mostly science, and feel that science lends itself naturally to heterogeneous groupings. Now, however, I'm wondering if heterogeneous grouping really works anymore. Especially in math education. Even if a teacher "teaches to the middle", s/he runs the risk of leaving behind the lower kids and boring the gifted kids. How can all kids be challenged to do their best at any assignment when a teacher has such a huge range of abilities to deal with?

Now I'm not in the classroom as a teacher anymore, but am as an instructional assistant. Maybe I'm a frustrated instructional assistant because I'm constantly thinking of ways the classroom teacher could modify their lessons to meet students of different abilities. I see many examples of teachers working with students who have lower abilities in, say, math.  But then they leave the gifted students totally bored because they've finished with the assignment and have nothing left to work on.  "Read, Write, Draw, or Do Homework" should not be a direction given to the gifted students who finish their work early. Consequently, if the teacher moves on with a lesson or a concept when the top half of the students are ready, s/he will leave behind the bottom end students. It's quite frustrating.

What I do see are the teachers pacing the lessons based on the bottom half of the class curve. I see too much frustration on the part of the gifted students having nothing to do--no enrichment or application being done once they've mastered the concept. These kids are being short-changed in the public education system.  Many schools, like in the district I work for, provide a "pull out" program for the GATE kids (but this isn't for any of the academic subjects). For 45 minutes a day, they leave the regular classroom to go to a teacher who provides them with special projects that are supposed to excite them about learning and motivate them to reach their goals.  I think that all of the GATE kids like this special class--after all, it meets needs.  But what happens when the GATE kids leave the classroom?  The rest of the kids are left to do "study skills" or "Read, Write, Draw, or Do Homework". Imagine what happens to the self esteem of the kids who remain in the regular classroom. What are they feeling?  Maybe, "I'm too stupid to go to GATE." Or, "Why does he get to go to GATE when he is the biggest jerk in the class?" And of course, "Why do I have to do this boring stuff when they get to do something fun?"

So, here's what I think. Do away with the pull-out program. Provide the "cool" learning projects to all of the kids during that 45-minutes.  ALL kids can benefit from that kind of project-based learning. Have different rubriks set up for different kids. Maybe a GATE kid should write a 5-page report while a non-GATE kid should provide a 3-page report. I don't know. And what about a subject like math where kids learn at such a variety of different paces and in so many different ways? Is there anything wrong with making separate, homogeneous groups where teachers can keep students all together and engaged easier? Or teach using a different method such as with using manipulatives versus using visual keys? Yes, then there's the stigma of the "bottom" group, so who knows the solution. 

All I can say is that something does need to be changed in our public education system. Kids are miserable on all ends of the learning spectrum. And I believe that teachers are even more stressed out nowadays than when I was teaching 12 years ago. So even though I am a frustrated instructional assistant because I can't teach "my way," I don't know if I ever do want to go back to being in charge of a classroom again. 

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Neat

First Weekly Address from President Obama

President Obama has posted his first weekly address on whitehouse.gov and has some optimistic ideas about recovery for and reinvestment in our country. The complete text of the address can be viewed here: 1/24/09 Weekly Address, below the video screen.

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Neat