More books

Here's the latest I have been working through (in the case of one of them, very sloowly working through--I had to renew it three times before I finally had time to finish):

Look Me in the Eye is a book I learned about from Heidi. It's a fascinating life history of John Elder Robison. John has Asperger's Syndrome. He wrote the book, and it's the first time I have ever learned anything about Asperger's from the perspective of someone with that condition. I've had students over the years with autism in different forms, including a student this year with Asperger's. I've learned a lot from their parents and attending inservice training about autism. All of that has been helpful to a point, but it wasn't until I read this book that I really felt like I understand my students with Asperger's. The other great thing about the book, is that it's a super wild story in and of itself. John spent some time working for KISS and designed their flame and smoke guitars. He's a captivating storyteller, and his story is amazing.

The second book, The Homework Myth: Why Our Kids Get Too Much of a Bad Thing, has taken me a while to read. Not because it isn't good, but because it's made me think...a lot. About my teaching, the assignments I have given, the effective/ineffectiveness of various homework items I've required over the years. I'd be interested on your take on homework. My experience has been that for the most part, I get lukewarm results at best on homework assignments. It's probably because the kids have been so burned by worthless busywork for the last 10 years that by the time they get to high school, they are done. They also have jobs and a bunch of other responsibilities that take their time after school as well. I used to assign my Sign Language students to meet once a week to practice on their own time. I found that it made the kids who didn't care lie (and not care about it), and made kids who do care lie, and feel bad about it. I try to make the things I assign as relevant and useful as possible. On some things I've gotten pretty close, and on other things I'm still revising. Anyway, an interesting read--especially if you have ever questioned the worth of the stuff your child brings home to plow through every night. According to this author, homework does more harm than good, and it hogs time in the evening that your child could be using to do things that kids do: play, read for fun, talk, make messes, etc.

Black Bean and Couscous Salad with Chicken

This recipe is great. If for no other reason, "couscous" is such a funny-sounding word, and is so easy and quick to make. I found this recipe on allrecipes.com, and made a few of my own changes.

Salad:
1/2 red bell pepper, chopped
1 cup of corn (frozen is fine)
1 can of rinsed and drained black beans
2 green onions, chopped
1 handful of chopped parsley (or cilantro, if that floats your boat)
1 cup couscous
1 cup chicken broth or water
1 avocado, sliced

Dressing:
zest and juice from two limes
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 teaspoons white vinegar
1/2 teaspoon cumin

1 chicken breast

Cook the chicken. I usually heat a little bit of olive oil in a pan, toss in the chicken, cover and let cook for about 8 minutes per side.

Bring the water to a boil, then stir in the couscous. Immediately remove from heat, cover and let stand for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes, fluff with a fork and stir into the salad.

While chicken is cooking, whisk together the dressing. Chop up salad ingredients (pepper, onion, parsley), and mix in a bowl with beans, corn and couscous. Stir in the dressing.

Slice chicken and avocados. Serve a large spoonful of salad mixture with chicken slices on side and garnish with avocado.

Insanity in the Senate

Aside from making incendiary comments, Chris Butters has been busy at work in other ways. He has sponsored a bill that could potentially cause a lot of damage in the classroom. If you are interested in the full text of the bill, see the end of the post. In short, a person with a BA degree can become a teacher, provided he/she can pass a criminal background check. No education program, no methodology classes, no student teaching experience required--in fact, the BA wouldn't necessarily need to even be in the same subject the person would be teaching. If you think this is a bad idea, contact your legislator immediately.

I can tell you from first-hand experience what can happen when someone doesn't have a background in education, but is given a provisional license to teach because he/she is familiar with the content. My new assignment at a different school this year was to replace just such a teacher. The program suffered, the kids were unhappy, and the teacher was unhappy as well. Your children deserve teachers who have been trained to teach.

Not sure who to contact? Here's Utah's legislature website. It's very easy to navigate and find contact information for your legislator. http://www.le.state.ut.us/

SB48: TEACHER LICENSING BY COMPETENCY
AMENDMENTS
2009 GENERAL SESSION
STATE OF UTAH

Chief Sponsor: D. Chris Buttars
House Sponsor: Curtis Oda

Be it enacted by the Legislature of the state of Utah:
Section 1. Section 53A-6-104.5 is amended to read:

Licensing by competency.
(1) A competency-based license to teach may be issued based on the demonstrated
competence of a teacher as provided in this section.
(2) A local school board, a charter school, or a person may request, and the State Board of Education shall grant a competency-based license to a person who:
(a) files an application with the board on the form prescribed by the board;
(b) pays the fee required by Section 53A-6-105 ;
(c) has not had a license revoked, suspended, or surrendered;
(d) successfully completes a criminal background check as required by Section
53A-6-401 ; and
(e) meets the qualifications specified in this section.
(3) A person may request a competency-based license to teach a core academic subject at a middle or secondary school level if the person:
(i) holds at least a bachelor's degree; and
(ii) has demonstrated a high level of competency in the academic subject by:
(A) passing a rigorous state academic subject test; or
(B) successful completion of an academic major, a graduate degree, course work equivalent to an undergraduate academic major, or advanced certification or credentialing
(c) A person may obtain a competency-based license to teach a subject other than a core academic subject at a middle or high school level if the person:
(i) has a bachelor's degree, associate's degree, or skill certification; and
(ii) has skills, talents, or abilities that make the person suited for the teaching position.
(d) The State Board of Education shall make rules in accordance with Title 63G, Chapter 3, Utah Administrative Rulemaking Act, that specifies standards and procedures for determining if a person who applies for a competency-based license to teach a subject other than a core academic subject has the skills, talents, or abilities suited for the teaching position.
(4) A school district or charter school:
(a) shall monitor and assess the performance of each teacher holding a competency-based license; and
(b) may recommend that the competency-based license holder's training and assessment be reviewed by the Utah State Office of Education for a level 1 license.

Pick me!

One of those proud teaching moments... Spirit week was this week. It was also my first week back after a long absence, and so I've basically just been catching up on all the stuff I got behind in. Our EDvisory classes had a door decorating contest. The school encouraged us to plan things out with our class in advance to have something creative and fun to decorate our doors with. I didn't have a whole lot of planning time, and I was working on getting caught up with kids during EDvisory, so I wasn't able to fully supervise the creativity happening on my door. I was just glad my kids were working relatively quietly. Here's the result:
Yeah, it didn't win. Wonder why.

One of the students working on the decoration project was bemoaning the fact that no one in the room could draw a wolf. I assured him that you didn't need to draw a wolf to have a prize-winning door. I guess I should have been a little more specific in my advice.

Deep questions

Yesterday, I made the trek over to school to chat with the teacher who has filled in for me for the last two weeks, gather up paperwork to sort and to do a general damage assessment. Overall, things didn't look to bad. My desk was piled high with stacks of paperwork, but that's to be expected after being gone so long. The floor was semi-trashed, which may correlate with the level of anarchy that happened in my absence. We'll see.

I had an interesting chat with my sub. I hate to use that word to describe him, because there are subs when you need a warm body to hit "play" on the VCR, and then there are people who are qualified teachers and experts in their field, and fill in because they like teaching. My sub I've had fits into the second category, and I am grateful for the time he was willing to give up to take over for me while I recovered. Unfortunately, a substitute could be the most qualified teacher in the world and kids will still see them as "just a sub", and take advantage of the fact that they don't know all of their names and are unfamiliar with how the school works. Grrr. Most of my sub's experience has been in small state schools for the deaf, and in the college level. I don't think he was quite prepared for high school. He asked me, "Is this class required? Half the kids want to be there and are motivated, and half of them don't want to be here. Who do I try to teach? The motivated kids or the ones who have fallen behind because they don't want to be there?" Mmm...Good question. I've been pondering that one since I started teaching. I know this sounds like things went badly, but overall, I think he had a good experience. I'll find out if my students had a good experience next week.

Stir crazy

I'm getting a little antsy. I'm ready to go back to work. Well, almost ready. I'm still moving a bit slow, but I'm picking up speed every day. I don't know that I'll be doing cartwheels on Monday, but I'm getting close.

I spent the day today working on more outfits for Heidi's project. They turned out pretty cute, although I think the tie was even worse to make by far than the trousers in my first attempt.

The other thing that has been keeping me entertained has been the steady stream of mail from my insurance company and the hospital. It would be a lot less entertaining if I didn't have insurance. Even with insurance...good grief! I had to chuckle, though, when I looked at today's bill from the hospital. When I went back the second time for a CT scan prior to my surgery, I started in the radiology department instead of the ER. I had already had a CT scan a few days earlier and wasn't asked to fork over a co-pay then (I guess they figured we had enough to worry about). This time, the nice friendly lady working at the desk asked me for a $50 co-pay. Sure, whatever. I was feeling crummy enough that I just handed her my card.

Back to the bill I got today from the hospital. After every single thing item on there for my stay and surgery added up to about a bajillion dollars, at the bottom, it said: "Payments recieved: $50--thank you." It gave a new total next to that, which was a bajillion dollars minus the $50 co-pay. Talk about a drop in the bucket. Fortunately, this is the pretend bill that the hospital sends you before you get the real one after insurance pays for part (hopefully most) of it. It even says on there not to worry about paying it. I'm not quite sure what the purpose is in them sending it--maybe just to make you feel so grateful when you get the actual bill that you are more willing to pay it.

Keeping busy

I have one week down and one to go before I go back to work. I've been able to keep myself fairly busy. I think the number one thing that has occupied my every waking thought (and last night made for some very odd dreams) has been stressing over lesson plans for my sub and worrying about how things are going at school. I've considered dropping by after school sometime this week to pick up a load of work to grade and record. I don't think I'm going to do that--not that at this point in my recovery I couldn't handle the drive to school and back, but I'm taking the approach of the ostrich. I'm going to keep my head pleasantly buried in the sand for a few more days before I dare to see what condition my room is in. I'm sure everything will be fine, and I trust my sub to handle things and keep the natives from tearing my room to pieces...but you never know. At least I haven't had to make any phone calls to parents this time around.

So on to other things I've done. I've read a few books. The first one I read, Martha, Inc. was very interesting. I have to say that Martha Stewart has always fascinated me. She comes across as the ultimate Mary Poppins: "practically perfect in every way" in the realm of cooking, entertaining, etc. There's also the side of her under the veneer--someone who actually isn't that perfect, and in fact can be very mean and rude. I was curious to see if the unpolished side is real, or just smear jobs from people who think a woman has be be a witch if she is successful in the business world. The book was written by someone who lived in the same town as Martha for many years, and did quite a bit of research before writing the book. Interestingly, a lot of the stuff he dug up about her were things that she wrote in her magazine, or things that she brought up during interviews with various people on TV. Some of the stuff about her childhood seemed a bit like he was piecing together things that we can "assume", but for the most part it seemed like a solid job. Although I'm sure it's not as exciting as the unauthorized biography about her published by the National Enquirer, this book is also "unauthorized" and written without her blessing. The book was published before Martha's really bad legal trouble began, but the patterns for her behavior that led to her sentencing are easy to see in some of the crazy stuff that had already gone on in her life. Anyway, I found it interesting in a morbidly curious way, and it left me pondering life's important questions: What does a person DO with billions of dollars? I mean, really! Martha isn't known for her philanthropy, and it seems like there comes a point when there is only so much stuff that you can buy once you have enough to buy a small island. And finally--how glad am I that times have changed, and the success of a girl's future doesn't hang on being nominated "best dressed college girl". Sheesh!

The next book that I read was a bit lighter: The Mysterious Benedict Society. I have a weakness for Young Adult literature, and I'm always looking for a fun read, and something I can recommend to a kid. This book was an entertaining read. Thanks for the loan, Kami! It's about a young orphan boy who sees an add in the paper for "gifted kids looking for special opportunities". It's an invitation to take a test, and Reynie (our hero) decides to try it out. He happens to be exceptionally clever, honest and good, and ends up joining a team of kids to save the world. (Side note--I thought it was kind of funny that the world was being threatened by secret messages being sent through radio, TV and cell phones. I've always known TV can turn your brain to mush. Now I can prove it!) I think young readers would enjoy this book for a number of reasons--first on the list is that the challenge facing the world is one that only children can solve (sorry, adults). Just don't be surprised if, upon finishing the book, your kid asks for a red bucket to cart around.

The other thing I've worked on this week has been making bereavement baby clothing items for Heidi's project. She has scads of things for girls--we are in the process of coming up with variations for boys. I played around with things, and she came over to visit one day and sew snaps and things.

Here's my first attempt:

I'm not making trousers anymore. What a pain.

Katie and Rachel came with Heidi. I thought this was a funny shot of Ryan with the two girls. Katie is definitely giving Rachel a run for her money in the contest of who is queen.