Don’t Blame Me

In Don’t Blame School Officials if Your Child Chooses to Look at Porn on His Laptop from Moving at the Speed of Creativity, Wesley Fryer tells about a news story where a parent is upset that her child accessed pornography on a school laptop. He also states,

“Responsibility for teen behavior when it comes to life online as well as offline lies primarily with the STUDENT.”

I wanted to jump up and cheer! Too much of society today wants to always blame someone else for a person’s behavior. The only behavior I can control is my own. The same goes for everyone else. Yes, outside things can influence my behavior but the ultimate responsibility comes back to me.

Years ago, I was a cheerleader coach. My head cheerleader had gotten pregnant of her senior year right smack in the middle of basketball season. She did not conceive during school hours or during any event where she was a cheerleader. This means in no way was I around or in charge of the cheerleaders. Yet, when some of the parents (high school and upcoming middle school student parents) found out, everyone wanted my resignation. They wanted me to resign not just as a cheerleader coach but as a teacher! How was I to blame for the poor choices that this girl made? Needless to say, I did not resign from either position.

My own children have made choices that I felt were bad. As a parent, I can teach them values and appropriate behavior but I can’t guarantee that they will always make the right choices. They will make mistakes. I made mistakes. In fact, many times, I still do. But I can’t blame anyone for the mistakes except myself. My behavior is determined by the choices that I make.

I also taught my children and my own students that there are consequences for the choices that they make. Some consequences may be good and some may be bad. But the responsibility falls back on them.

When the school teaches students to drive, students are given a tool of transportation. This tool can take them to libraries, museums, schools, and so many other educational places when they get in their own car. It also can take them to porn shops, illegal drug drops, and other inappropriate or other illegal places. The choice is one that the person, as a driver, makes when behind the wheel. If a student gets a ticket or is arrested outside of school hours while driving, the school should not be blamed because of these bad choices.

When I teach students, I am giving them information and knowledge to use in their lives outside of school. I also teach how to use this information and knowledge appropriately. But I cannot and will not monitor every minute of their lives once I do this. That is part of growing up.

This student had the laptop taken away and suffered consequences. Once the parent began blaming the school for this student’s behavior, the student stopped being responsible for his own behavior. I feel parents that do this will have a bumpy road in the future. The student has now learned a new behavior - “Don’t blame me. It’s not my fault.”

What do you think? Please share.

Image: 'preemptive finger pointing poster'
http://www.flickr.com/photos/54289096@N00/317919851

Dream Big

In Rightsizing your passion from Seth's Blog, Seth Godin states,

“If you’re short on passion, it might be because your goals are too small or the fear is too big.”

This is so true!

When I was young, I always wanted to be a teacher. That was my big dream! As I got older, I realized that my father made less money than most of my friends’ parents who had 2 working parents. When I decided which college I wanted to go to was a private university out of state, I knew that there was no way I could afford to go there. But I decided to dream big. I worked hard and acted as if that was where I would go and do whatever it took to get there. When I applied to the university, I could only afford to apply to one place so I sent in my application with the belief that I would be accepted. I decided to worry about finances after I got accepted. Then I was accepted through “Early Admissions” and decided that the finances would work out. I applied for financial aid and some federal loans and scholarships. All were given to me so I actually got to attend my dream university! Every year, I worked hard to earn money and keep up my grades so I could return the next year. It was hard but I dreamed the big dream and it happened.

I could have listened to those naysayers who told me that private schools were too expensive. I was also told that there was no way I could financially attend. I was told that there was no way I would get any loans (my father didn’t make enough money to repay it) or scholarships (I wasn’t as smart as my classmates) to attend this school. But I was determined! I declared my emancipation from my parents and was able to obtain loans. I studied harder to make sure my grades were good enough to earn scholarships. My mother used to tell me that “where there is a will, there is a way.” I believed her.

I could have had smaller dreams like just going to college instead of the university that I had my heart set on. I could have gotten small jobs to financially afford a local community college. I could have settled on less. Instead I had the passion to dream the big dream. In dreaming the big dream, I think you have to believe that it can happen and not let others pull you away from that belief.

Sure, I could have failed and not achieved my big dream. But what was the worst that could happen? I would have to attend a small community college near home (not going to college was not an option at all). So, I had nothing to lose and only everything to gain to dream big.

I’m not saying that it is okay to dream big and hope it falls in your lap. I’m saying that you should dream big and then work to make that dream come true. It can happen.

Image: 'Big League Dreams'
http://www.flickr.com/photos/94833286@N00/497607116

Useful Information In and Out of the Classroom 2/3/12

Here are some interesting sites that I’ve found this week, thanks to my PLN. As a teacher, I feel we have to keep up to date concerning research in our field and current issues in the education system. I hope some of these inspire you, inform you, and even have you asking questions. Thank you for coming by and visiting!

Note: Each resource is labeled with a level and subject area to make it easier to use.

Levels: E: Elementary; M: Middle; H: High; G: General, all levels; SN: Special Needs; T: Teachers

Subject Areas: LA: Language Arts, English, Reading, Writing; M: Math; S: Science; Health; SS: Social Studies, Current Events; FA: Fine Arts; Music, Art, Drama; FL: Foreign Language; PE: Physical Ed; C: Career; A: All

Cursive Handwriting Practice - Paragraphs - “Make a title for your handwriting worksheet in Step 1 below. Then go to Step 2 and type several sentences to make your paragraph. Watch words appear in dot trace letters as you type. You can then modify letter size, color and line color for a professional Cursive practice writing exercise!” (L: E; SA: LA)

Road to the White House - “Using C-SPAN’s Campaign 2012 website, students will explore the Election Process in the United States. They will examine the role of early campaigning, caucuses and primaries, the conventions, the debates, Election Day, continuing through to Inauguration Day. Then, students will evaluate the United States’ election process to determine whether they believe our system is appropriate in choosing the president or whether they think it should be altered.” (L: H; SA: SS)

Planet Ebook - “Classic literature for download as free eBooks” (L: H; SA: LA)

The Chronicles of Narnia - the book is read to listeners in a free audio podcast (L: E; SA: LA)

TechSmith’s Hub for Experimental Innovation - “Welcome to TechSmith Labs – the home for temporary trials, wacky experiments, and maybe TechSmith's next best thing. Check below for our latest experiments and let us know what you think! Input from our customers is what makes every TechSmith project great; just don't get too attached. While these experiments may be cool, keep in mind that they're experiments – they may morph into other ideas, turn into products, or discreetly disappear forever.” (L: H; SA: S)

Original image by Pat Hensley

Writing Goals

I know that I might have written about this before but I am writing about it again because some people need a refresher on how to write goals. You wouldn’t believe how many times I have had to have people rewrite goals because they just don’t get it. When I was in college, it was drummed in my head so much that even after 30 years; I still remember how to write them. This came in handy for work and personal goals.

Goals need to be behavioral, observable, and measureable.

First I need to identify the behavior that I want to target. For example, I want to lose weight so I plan on walking on my treadmill. This is a behavior that can be observed.

Now I plan on walking 60 minutes on my treadmill for a minimum of 3 times a week. That is measurable. I can keep a chart on the times I walk.

So, my goal would be written as:

I will walk 60 minutes on my treadmill at least 3 times a week.

Words like “try”, “seem”, “improve” sound great but they are not observable or measurable. It seems like some teachers don’t want to make a solid commitment and think that if they use these vague words, they won’t seem like a failure if they don’t succeed. But these types of words can no show success because even though they seem positive, they are concrete. Goals need to have action words. These words show an action that I can see someone do.

The big thing that many leave off is the criteria that make it measurable. This tells me how much. How many times will the person do something? How often will it be done? Examples can be: 4 out of 5 times, 80% of the time, 10 times without errors etc. I see the result as a mathematical number that can be charted.

I have used goals like these for my students IEPs. In my teacher evaluations, I have used goals like this for my yearly evaluations. In my personal life, I have used goals like this to help me achieve things that I wanted to do. Not only do teachers need to be able to make goals like this, but we need to teach students how to do this. This is something that they will do later in their life with many different things.

What kind of goals do you write and how do you write them? Please share.

Image: 'Goals'
http://www.flickr.com/photos/68131855@N00/739519564

A Message to My New Teacher

In What I want my teachers to know about me from Life is not a race to be first finished, Allanahk shares,

“At the end of last year I asked my Year Four students to record their thoughts on an open Google Presentation.
What were the five things that they wanted their new teacher in Year Five to know about them?”

Then she asked how we would answer this question and I thought I would give it a try.

1. I am a visual learner. Sure you can lecture and talk, but I need to see it visually to capture it in mind, process it, and retain it.
2. I pay attention better if I can keep moving. I like to knit while I listen so my mind doesn’t wander.
3. I need my learning to be relevant to my life. I need to know why I need to learn this and how it will apply to my life.
4. After about 30 minutes of sitting and listening, I need a break. I need to process what you have told me and I need to move my body around. If I don’t move, my brain seems to turn off. So, if I get up and move to the back of the room, please don’t be offended.
5. Sometimes I get hit by the shy bug. It is hard for me to ask questions or give comments in a group. If we could have a backchannel of some sort, it would really help me participate.

How would you answer?

Image: 'the professor is six minutes late'
http://www.flickr.com/photos/55779593@N00/127023370