Leader or enemy

At 7:20 this morning, the loudspeaker crackled. I was in my classroom sucking down a large iced coffee in order to combat the exhaustion of my 4-day weekend.  The principal's voice whined over the intercom.

"There is a mandatory meeting for all staff in the library, beginning immediately." His voice was grave, and I felt the flutters of panic. This Labor Day weekend had been tragic in our area-- several young people had gotten into horrific accidents. A friend's younger brother was crushed by a train when his car stalled on the tracks. I hoped that none our staff or students had been injured.

The assembled throng of staff wore the same expressions of sleepy dread, exchanging looks, mentally taking attendance of faculty and staff. Our principal rushed to the podium, cleared his throat, and began to speak.

"As many of you know, President Obama will be speaking to the nation's students this afternoon. Under no circumstances are you allowed to show this speech to students. As a school, we are comitted to remaining poiltically neutral. That is all." He walked away, leaving all of us to stare around the room in shock.

It has been on my mind all day. As my fellow teachers know, teaching is more than just the curriculum. Teaching is about "teachable moments," those unplanned events that open a possibility for meaniful discussion and applied curriculum: the hatching of a chrysalis in a classroom window, a story in the room that fits into your curriculum. Today's speech by Obama was a teachable moment. Instead of teaching our students about respect, we instead reinforced the message that authority figures should not be respected. In a time when parents are being usurped by children and teachers are being considered no more than glorified babysitters, to show students that the highest elected official in our country does not deserve respect is more damaging than we know.

Our students, despite their age, do know what is going on. They have an access to current events that we cannot fathom. They know about the controversy of Obama's speech, from Tweets, news updates, or even dinner time conversation. What message are we sending our students?

My administration, like many others around the country, refused to show the speech in order to appear neutral. What they did, however, was make a different political statement.

I admit, that I am a Democrat and did vote for Obama in the election. I know, however, that my personal political feelings would not change my feelings about this. I did not appreciate President G.W. Bush's decisions. However, he was my President, and elected by the majority of this country. Therefore, I would listen to what he had to say.

I talked about narcissism several posts ago in relationships. This narcissism extends now into the political arena. Many people now believe that "because I didn't vote for him, I shouldn't have to listen to or support him". This attitude is so different from that of our forefathers, parents, and grandparents. I'm concerned about what this means for the future of our country; this saying keeps repeating in my mind: united we stand, divided we fall....

Gotta go back, back to school!

It is a tradition in my family that my mother would wake my sister and I up on the first day of school by blasting this song from the movie Grease 2.

So in honor of all the teachers, students, and parents who begin school today or this week, enjoy this song from my family to yours.

Check out the redecorating

One of my graduated 8th grade students, Dakota*, so generously offered to help me redecorate my classroom. Okay, I bribed her with pizza and ice cream... and she was desperated to get out of her house. Thanks to our efforts, my classroom is now organized and ready for the new year.



The students' work station. Notice the instructions on the board; last year the students would print out their assignments, and leave them for me to collect. It was a nightmare. This year, I'm decreeing that they need to staple and pass their work in themselves!



My desk-- notice the organization!



Alternative seating arrangments. I may teach computers, but the students still watch presentations and do group work off the computer. Still to come: a yoga ball and a bean bag chair.



Computer rules section complete with posters unearthed at a yard sale.



You "otter" love computer bulletin board. This is my favorite one because it features recycled salad containers as keys. The kids get a kick out of it too, and it helps them to learn where the keys are as they are waiting in line to be dismissed. It is a pain in the A$$ to put up, and I literally cried when I was told to take it down at the end of the year.



This is my "Catch of the Week" wall where I post student exemplars.





Back wall with my lights, flower garland, and bandana "curtains"?



Mini fridge with drawers for headphone storage for each class.



The pitifully incomplete tree.

Don't forget, comments on this or any of my other posts between now and August 26 will enter you in the giveaway!

Comments are back!

Many thanks to Camile for emailing me to tell me that comments were not working on my blog! Comments have been enabled again!

By the way, Camile is hosting a sweet giveaway on Classroom Confessions specifically for teachers. She is giving away a copy of the indispensible The First Days of School by Harry Wong, a pink tote, and a ton of school supplies. Check out her the giveaway here, and make sure you tell her Aurora sent you!

Spent the afternoon in my classroom unpacking boxes. For some reason the school requires that we take down all decorations and pack our things away; I believe they expect that they will get around to cleaning the walls and desks, but they never do. At this time, my floor has not been waxed, and the counters/desks in my room are as dusty as they were the last day of school. I got my "You Otter Love Computer" bulletin board set up -- it is my favorite because it is (mostly) recycled. I used washed, small salad containers to mimic the keys on a keyboard.

I am making a concious effort to make my room as neat and orderly as possible. I set up a "work station" for the students next to the printer with a pencil sharpener, stapler, and an "inbox". My main problem last year is that the students would print out their assignments, and just leave them on the printer for me to collect. I am going to make it clear to the students that I will NOT grade anything left on the printers. I also purchased PINK (!) 3-drawer carts to store headphones. Each student is required to bring headphones in to use during class. Each class will be designated a labeled drawer to store their headphones. Hopefully it will help to prevent lost headphones.

Tomorrow's projects include putting up bandana curtains and another bulletin board. I will post pictures tomorrow!