With school back in full swing, I’m finally coming up for air!  After accompanying my son to Colorado (to attend college) in late July, I came back to North Texas to prepare for my 20^th year in the classroom. 

    Before school started, I took my ‘projected class list’ of 16  5^th grade students ( a large class for a bilingual setting) and began the arduous task of reviewing records, test scores, teacher notes, discipline archives and then took on the dubious task of calling parents to introduce myself as their 5^th grader’s new teacher.

    I worked long hours re-setting up the myriad of tanks and containers that house the menagerie of critters that reside in my classroom during the school year. Bearded dragons, iguanas, ground frogs, burrowing frogs, tree frogs, a toad, a salamander and a newt; an African clawed frog, African Malawi Ciclids, and a collection of locally caught animals including a Texas Spiny Lizard,  a number of small geckos, and a green anole.

   I set up the “forum style” seating arrangement for student involvement and the content area centers for extended instruction.  And by the time I got through a week’s worth of Teacher Inservices, I really felt I was ready for the parent meeting on the Friday afternoon before school started.

   I personally called and invited all my student’s parents to the “meet the teacher and leave your supplies” meeting.  I made up the 16 Parent Information Packets, and even had a couple of extra ones “just in case I had an extra child or set of divorced parents who each wanted their own copy of the classroom information. 

    My room was in order, my thoughts collected, my opening speech for the parents.  In a word, I was “ready.”  I was “prepared.”  I wrote the children’s names on word strips and was prepared to hand the nametags to the students as they came in. They would be told to choose a desk and place their nametag on it.  I had a sign up sheet outside my door with 16 slots for up-to-two parents per child to sign and be counted.  I ate a leisurely lunch. I relaxed as I listened to Glen Gould’s 1959 live rendition of J.S.Bach’s “Goldberg Variations,” and quietly sat and wrote lesson plans for an hour before the students, with their parents and supplies in-tow, were scheduled to arrive.

    Then there was the “all-call” from the office. There were new “updated” class rosters in our boxes. My new list had 19 names on it!  Needless to say, not everyone showed up for the “meet the teacher/supplies drop off” meeting, but I used all 16 of the Parents’ Packets I’d prepared ahead of time, and by the following Friday afternoon, with a full week of Fall 2009 education under our belts…I had 25 students in my classroom!

    This might not sound like a lot, pretty average you might say?  Well, let it suffice to say, there are only 14 lockers in my room and every student has double the textbooks 14 in all-- (7 in English and 7 in Spanish) assigned to him/her. And while “keeping up with the books” can be an ominous task…keeping up with the kids and their needs is daunting!  Needless to say, I stressed for a couple of weeks with all of the adjustments that had to be made just in terms of classroom space and time.  There were now 25 desks to accommodate, twenty-five sets of books, twenty-five profiles to review, nearly twice the time on task, twice the grading, twice the re-teaching…but when I realized that I was wallowing in the wasteland of “Nothing you can do about it,” I remembered a speech I saw delivered by Civil and Women’s Rights Activist Florynce Kennedy when I was in college.  Ms. Kennedy said, “When you find yourself worrying unnecessarily about things, don’t AGONIZE, ORGANIZE!”  The epiphany that brought me was exhilarating, the work that it’s cost me to become more organized was (and still is) somewhat of a mission.  But we all need those wake-up calls now and again.  Mine is here in the form of 25 children’s needs.  I have the tools and the skills and the support that I need to teach.  I can’t think of a higher calling.

     By using the State’s and the District’s diagnostic tests, benchmark exams, English and Spanish Reading, Math and Science tests…we are able to better service the needs and deficiencies of each child.  These assessments and the work that we will do this year to make sure that “every child succeeds” and that “no child is left behind” all become part of the fabric that creates the learning expectations, dynamics and environment that is the classroom. Using the data from these exams is part of the organizational process.

    The environment must also be highly organized and even “orchestrated” at times.  My room is full of life: plants, animals children, music, art, math, literature, voices, discovery and thought.  The sounds of Glen Gould’s piano playing Bach’s Goldberg Variations provides the backdrop for journal writing, and math problem solving, Mozart’s Adaggio in C Major (with John Williams on Guitar) runs a melodious background filler for silent readings in science and other core subject areas, and we also learn to appreciate the values and sounds of silence during literature and oral language exercises.

    I love beginnings.  New faces, new names, new personalities. Getting to know each other is half the battle.  The other half is in the expectations and performance.  We all have a long way to go in order to be prepared for the State’s exams in the Spring and graduation to the 6^th grade at the end of May.  There will be lots of lessons and learning between now and then, but with administration and parental support, this group of students will find (as have their predecessors) that the work although challenging can be fun and interesting. They will realize all too soon that time flies when they are on the right path.  It’s our job as parents and teachers to put them there, and keep them there.

    At the end of this week, report cards will be going home, parents will be satisfied or elated or disappointed.  Children will have begun a new grading period; a new opportunity to prove themselves and begin the process of preparation for the rest of their lives.  Education is like that.  We are continually beginning again, (as teachers, students, and parents) to make meaningful inquiries, thought provoking assessments and profound judgments about life’s lessons. 

    As teachers we’ve been charged with the challenge:  “Begin with the End in mind.”  As I begin my next set of lesson plans, I will keep in mind that what these children learn from me in terms of academics is useful, valuable and important for this week’s quizzes, critical to understanding next week’s lessons, and essential for passing state exams in a few months…but what they learn from me psychologically, socially and conceptually will stay with them for years, perhaps for a lifetime. And whether I have 5, 15 or 25 students in my charge doesn’t change my mission.  What will they leave with in May? I want them to know and remember that they are loved, worthwhile and important.  I want them to know that that they are capable, talented and focused .  I want them to be successful, determined and ardent thinkers.  I want them to be tolerant, compassionate and understanding individuals.

Teaching and parenting are ominous responsibilities with far reaching consequences, we have to be up to life’s challenges, so our kids will learn from our examples how to face their own challenges in an ever-changing world!

Sometimes life’s lessons come when you least expect them, and from some unlikely sources.

   Last week I drove my son to Denver to go back to college.  He will be living with my brother and sister-law.  I wasn’t sure how long the trip would take or how long I would be needed to get him tested, enrolled, registered, and acclimated, so I waited until the last minute to purchase my airline ticket.  Now, as a seasoned traveler, I know that’s kindly “dicey” at best, but the extenuating circumstances can be blamed for my tardiness in scheduling my flight. 

   As a school teacher, putting her son back in college, I was ofcourse, watching EVERY PENNY!  My lifelong “old reliable” Southwest was kindly proud of their last-minute fares…and with the cost at $360, I was looking into bus tickets!  The fact that it was a one-way fare didn’t help me any.  My sister-in-law ran all of her standard online last minute deals and found me a seat on Frontier Airlines for $109.  Cheaper than a bus ticket, and 1/12 of the time!  The price was right, I jumped at the opportunity. 

   The price may have been great, but well…let’s just say I got up at 4 in the morning, and so did my brother and my son.  We left at 4:40 a.m. to get to the airport on the outskirts of Denver (my brother lives in Littleton) by 6:00 a.m. My plane was scheduled to depart at 7:00 a.m. While I will admit, for a mom--leaving a child ---even with your brother and sister-in-law---can be an emotional moment, and perhaps I was a little oversensitive and maybe a little reactive to what transpired.  However, I made my notes on the plane trip home and waited a week before writing this.  It still needs to be said.

   I walked into the airport after saying “good bye” to my son.  I looked around the check-in lobby, got the “lay of the land” and filed into the roped-off labyrinth that winds in and around and in a matter of just a few minutes, I was “next?  Come on down here to the end,” the Frontier ‘traffic director’ guided me to a check-in station at the end of the counter. “Donna will be happy to help you with any questions and/or problems you might have getting checked in.”  I looked at the gentleman, and said “Thank you,” and turned to Donna and said, “Actually I can use your help.”  After I bought the ticket, thinking I might be making a few more trips to Colorado in the next few years, I’d acquired a ‘frequent flyer’ number, and wanted to make sure I got credit for this flight, and I needed to check a bag before I picked up my boarding pass.

   Donna was NOT pleased.  She looked at me and pointed at the computer monitor that was in front of me, “Use the screen.” she said. I looked around for a keyboard.  There wasn’t one.  I touched the screen, nothing happened. I looked over to the people using the check-in station next to me, and they were actually getting help from the person behind their counter.  I looked at Donna, and said, “I’m not familiar with how to…” that’s as far as I got, she glared at me, raised her voice, pointed at the monitor and repeated, “USE THE SCREEN!”  I attempted the process again, with no results.  Touching the screen didn’t change anything. 

  A melodious voice overhead rang out, “FRONTIER AIRLINES wants to welcome all passengers to the DenverAirport.  If you are in need of assistance, a Frontier Airline’s representative will be happy to help you.”  I laughed to myself, as I looked up to find Donna talking to another of those ‘Frontier Airlines’ representatives.  I once again asked Donna for help.  Donna looked disturbed, she pointed at the monitor and said, “ I told you to USE THE SCREEN!”  By this time, I was beginning to feel uncomfortable…the idea that I could get here and hour and 15 minutes early and still possibly miss my flight because I didn’t or couldn’t get my boarding pass began to creep into the back of my mind.  I was beginning to feel a little incompetent at this point, so I put on my biggest smile and unwittingly admitted, “I’m not familiar with how to do that.”

   She rolled her eyes, and showed me her open hand as she finally walked over towards my station.  “Where is your card?” she demanded.  Card? What card?  I had gotten out my driver’s license as identification for picking up my boarding pass, but I began to rifle through my purse for my wallet full of cards, hoping that one of them would be the “magic key” to unlocking this machine. “Any card!” she growled and snatched my license from my hand and swiped it through the card reader (that I hadn’t seen and didn’t even know was there-on the side of the monitor.) Donna exhaled loudly and rolled her eyes into the back of her head once again, “There!” she said, “All you have to do is follow instructions!” Her tone was fraught with disgust and somehow implied that I was intentionally being as ‘stupid’ as she was making me out to be.

   An older couple that had just stepped up to the screen next to mine, witnessed the scene and shook their heads.  As they began tapping at the screen and looking under the monitor for a keyboard, I told them to get out a driver’s license.  I showed them where the card swipe was on the side of the monitor.  The woman looked at me and smiled, “She must be having a bad day.”  Her husband harrumphed, “It’s way too early for her to be having a bad day, the day just started.  She must have had a bad night!”  As I was attempting to show them everything I’d “learned,” Donna stepped out from behind the counter and walked across the lobby to catch a pilot or air-steward in uniform as he walked through.  I hurriedly proceeded to follow the ‘instructions on the screen’ finally attaining the prize at the end of the battle: the coveted boarding pass! 

   I looked for someone to check my bag, and no one was around.  The older couple had no bags to check they smiled, thanked me and moved on.  I stood there, and waited for…Donna.  At this point I felt like raising my hand.  I’m a school teacher, and I felt like raising my hand!  I turned around and stood there and waited for Donna’s return.  A few minutes later, Donna came back. “You’re STILL here?” she asked incredulously.  “I need to check a bag,” I offered.  She took my boarding pass from my hand, read through it and said, “Nope! You have an economy ticket.  No bag check.  You’ll have to carry it on.”  “I have a pocket knife in the bag,” I replied, “I have to check it.” 

   “Can’t you read??? You had a chance to buy that opportunity when you purchased your ticket.”  I looked at her, “Of course I can read…” I began, but by this time Donna was back behind the counter demanding that I “Use the screen!”  I tried sliding my driver’s license again, and the message read, “No unused ticketed reservations exist.” I looked over at Donna, she said in a loud, slow deliberate voice, “USE THE SCREEN.” “But I already have my boarding pass, and I need to…”  In an instant, Donna was over the baggage rack.  She yanked my boarding pass from my hand and flashed it under a bar-code scanner under the monitor.  “They make this system so simple a child can use it!”  she hissed. “There!” My ticket information came up, I got out a credit card and paid another $15 to check my bag, and I looked around to see if anyone was available to take my bag to the conveyor belt.  Only Donna, who stood there looking at me as if I were the most incompetent hillbilly traveler she’d ever seen in her life. 

   At that point, I stopped.  I looked at Donna and in my nicest assertive voice, I asked, “How was I supposed to know to do that?”  She rolled her eyes into the back of her head, and continued to look down her nose at me.  I stood my ground, and asked her again. “No, really-Donna.  How was I supposed to know how to do that?”  “Never been to a grocery store, either?” she quipped. 

   Okay.  So there is a barcode on the boarding pass. But I’m in an AIRPORT, not a Walmart.  Neither the card-swipe or the bar-code reader was labeled or obtrusive.  There were no written instructions ANYWHERE.

   I’ll admit that last Saturday morning, I was not “Touch-screen check-in savvy.” I don’t play video games, and unless Elvia is with me, I avoid the self-checkout lanes at the grocery and hardware stores like the plague, opting instead for the friendly and familiar face-to-face banter of good customer service.

   I’ll admit, there were hundreds of passengers flying early that morning who knew exactly what they were doing, and “flew quickly through” the check-in process without a hitch!

   And if there is a “next time” I’ll be one of those people.

But this past Saturday at 6 in the morning, I stood there in the Denver Airport feeling alone…humiliated, ridiculed and belittled—and as I struggled to get another counter attendant to take my bag so that I could finally go to my gate and await my flight home…I thought about my kids.  My students.  I thought about how many times they must feel just like this—when they don’t understand something and ask for help--and someone thinks repeating the same instructions over and over, louder and slower, or in a more impatient and angry tone will somehow make them understand or make them go away. 

   As a teacher, I often have to pick up the pieces, the fragments of the child’s self esteem when others have chosen to berate them until they just “go away.”

   As teachers (and as human beings) we cannot miss opportunities to ‘teach and empower,’ when we are confronted with them.  They have to be recognized and embraced.   There is always something to be had in return. Sometimes we learn patience. Other times we gain understanding.  Maybe we may just get a warm grin, that causes us to remember how to smile. Maybe we teach another how to facilitate. Maybe we just get better at it ourselves. But in all of this, we’ll all learn how to give and accept appreciation, tolerance and respect.  And hopefully, at  the end of the day, every life that we've touched, will be better because we were there, and we will have made a positive difference in the life of another person.

 With record-shattering, soaring summertime temperatures, added to the fact that the air conditioning is shut off in our classrooms over the summer to conserve energy and resources, spending time in the classroom during the hottest part of the year can get rather warm—but even this horrendous heat can’t diminish the lure of the classroom for teachers who are supposed to be “on break.”

    Did I say “break”?  That’s really kind of humorous.  As a teacher, I’m often asked, “Isn’t it wonderful to have summers off?  You get to sleep in, you can lounge around in your pajamas all day long!  That’s the life!”  I always have to laugh. “Wow! If they only KNEW!”

    Teachers’ families are a little different.  All of our “Dental check-ups,” and “Wellness check-ups” are scheduled in June or July.  Our home “Spring cleaning” happens in the hot summer months, and we try to get all of our annual shopping out of the way during this time as well.

    As teachers, we also stay busy during the summer with work-related activities, the only difference is: we don’t get paid for the time we put in. The state requires a certain number of continuing education in-service hours in order to maintain our teaching certificates.  Most of us don’t have time during the year to meet this requirement, because they either require missing days of school (most administrators frown at this) or are held on the weekend, and our family frowns at that!  So a large part of our Inservice hours are done during the summer.  A great deal of coursework is done through the District.  Workshops on methodology, technology, educational philosophies as well as practicums are offered and taken all summer long.  When we do have these workshops to attend ( sometimes they can last for days, others for weeks) we have to find daycare or sitters for the kids and arrange all kinds of schedules to make them happen!

    It’s a bigger job than you might think…getting ready to go back to school. 

    The multi-page checklist that hangs on the door is proof that maintenance crew has been busy all summer deep-cleaning carpets, waxing floors, washing down desks and chairs, and a “hundred or so” other chores in prepping the school for the return of the children.  Before I closed down the classroom for the summer, I faithfully stripped the place down to bare bones after finishing up in June…the books are stacked neatly by subject in the lockers, all the chairs stacked up in one corner, desks in another, bulletin board borders sit in strips in a basket in the corner, all of the computers turned off, powered down, unplugged and covered in plastic…All of the math manipulatives have found their way back into their bins on the rolling cart, the science equipment is boxed and stored…except for that which is still necessary to house and care for the myriad of classroom critters that remained at school for the summer.

     I have to look at the disaggregated data from this past year’s TAKS scores.  This will help me to determine testing areas that my students from last year (as a group) may not have done as well as I would have liked.  I then have to review the TEKS objectives (Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills) that are associated with the areas that I need to look at and find some new approaches to teaching.  I then do a “survey of the literature,” to research alternative teaching methods in each of the areas of Math, Reading and Science where my students fell short.

    And then…there is the copying.  I have to make copies of the stories and forms that will be used in the Diagnostic Reading Exams, the Benchmark Math, Reading and Science Exams, and of course the Introductory packets for the students and their parents outlining my expectations, school and classroom rules and requirements as well as a look at the TAKS and other educational objectives for the 5^th grade, which include passing the Exit Exams in Reading and Math for promotion to the 6^th grade. 

    So coming back in, I’ve got to look at my new class list. Teaching in a Title I school means our students have a very high mobility rate.  This is especially true for the Hispanic community that I serve, so before I get too involved in planning for this group of children.  When teaching our local bilingual kids, I have to develop a relationship with the parents and sometimes even the siblings in order to do the work that I need to do for and with the child.  In a Title I school, we are required to keep records of every call and/or contact we make with parents or guardians (or any other family member for that matter) on behalf of a child.  I have to make copies of the log sheets that make up my Parent Contact Notebook.  As I make calls, I will have to enter each call in the log that I will maintain throughout the year.  I make phone calls to the parents to introduce myself, and to make sure that the family is still living in the area of the district assigned to Southridge.  If all the numbers on file are not working, I ask other parents who live in the same area if they have numbers and may even make home visits if there are several unreachable families living in the same area. 

    Once I’ve determined who is going to actually be a physical presence in my classroom on the first day of school, I’ve got to get into the school office when someone is there with a key to the file room. I pull the Cumulative Files (educational tracking history) for each new student and begin the task of note making as to the areas of strength and deficiency for each student.  This normally takes about an hour for each child and helps me to make up preliminary groups for Reading, Writing, Science and Math. Currently, there are 19 students on my preliminary list, and one student that I retained from last year.  Between today and the first week of school, there will be several additions and perhaps some attrition, but the work has to be done in order for me to “hit the ground running” when school starts. 

    Like most teachers that I know, my family members get conscripted into the school classroom preparation process. Elvia (my 15 year-old FMHS sophomore) goes into the classroom with me daily and feeds all of the container animals that have spent the summer in the room.  She takes my prepared lists of student groups and arranges table areas from the stacked desks and chairs.  We scope out and study the room for centers areas, make lists of essential items for these areas and begin the building process for constructing usable workable and viable learning areas and environments for each discipline. 

    Additionally, I have an area in my room where I keep board games like Mancala, Chess, Checkers and backgammon, packed up and ready for check-out.  These are wonderful games for teaching the children mental strategies and thinking ahead.  My children don’t have these games in their homes, so I provide them at school.  I will have the children divided up into groups of 4, and bring them in before school to teach them how to play the games (most are totally unfamiliar with them) and when they have been through the game orientation for that particular game, they will “earn the right” to take check it out and take it home for a weekend.

    Elvia goes through my cabinets looking for items that were put away or acquired in our Saturday morning garage sale quests over the summer.  Organizing the new acquisitions with the old, throwing out damaged or unusable items, and revamping the classroom for a different class size, and set of children can be daunting.  There are curtains to hang, plants to bring back in, fabric to staple to the walls, borders to staple,  a horticulture center to set up, an animal husbandry area to set up and in general a lot of “set-up” within the walls of the classroom.

    We’ll all be reporting back to school in a couple of weeks on the 18^th, this morning though (fully two weeks out) there was a parking lot full of teacher’s cars when I pulled up at school.  The administrators are in their offices, the floors are polished to a shine that you can literally see yourself in, there is the “buzz” in the air that lets you know there is life in the building…and all of us looking forward to the new school year…the new students we will have, the new faces we will meet, and the new lessons we will learn.

Thomas Edison once said, “Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.”  If that is the measure of a genius, I have a class full of them.  “They came, they saw, they conquered.”

     With the results of the 5^th grade TAKS Science exam still out, I can honestly say, they’ve worked hard, they’ve given it their all, and I’m proud to know each and every one of them.  They came into my classroom in August…and that’s just it…as May rolls on through…I begin to think about where I got them last Fall. How I fretted that I’d never get them ready in time!

     As summer approaches, the end of another year of academia draws to a close, and the children are winding down after several grueling months of academic rigor in preparation for the high stakes TAKS exams.  I begin to worry about the message we send, and consequences for our children over the summer months, when there is no longer a routine in place and the lessons they’ve learned are lost in the endless hours they’ll spend on their videogames, the internet, sitting in front of mindless television, and in meaningless chatter on the phone, texting and hanging out with their friends.

     As a parent, I understand the inclination to just let the kids “chill”… They’ve worked hard all year, summer seems to be the time to let them relax, play with their friends, stay up all night and sleep in all day, summer is the time to let them…“just be kids…” 

     But the teacher in me screams out…“Nooooooo!!!!!”  We just got them stepping up to the plate, and taking that swing at the proverbial academic baseball.  Finally, they are getting their homework done and turned in on time!  They are working in cooperative groups, writing essays, thinking through and solving those math problems on their own, reading for pleasure and information…they’ve learned and proved that they can compete with the rest of the kids…their confidence in their academic abilities is at an all-time high…and the year is up!  As my electronic-ly minded kids say, “GAME OVER!”

     So, somewhere between the tendancy of  the parent towards leniency and the dogma of the teacher to retain the organization and structure that are finally in place, there lies a “happy medium.”  Together as parents and teachers, in the last nine months we have instilled in our children a sense of  respect, responsibility, and the required routine for academic success.  Our combined efforts have shown that the children will rise to our expectations, and in turn shown the children that they can achieve their goals with dedication, and hard work. 

     Okay, so first…(if you must…) be the lenient parent.  Give them a week off, but let them know in advance…it’s a WEEK, not the WHOLE SUMMER!

     If your kids are in Middle or High School, check with their teachers and counselors (BEFORE the school year is over) and ask about “summer reading.”  Get a copy of your children’s schedules for next year.  If your child is reticent in a subject like Math or Science…look up the Essential Elements for those courses at the TEA website online; check out or buy a book ahead of time, and give them an assignment four or five days a week.  Give them a time and a place to study and then… monitor their work.  If your child is taking Pre-AP or AP classes, go to Half Price and buy the study guides.  If nothing else, buy the study guides for the PSAT, SAT and the ACT and let them begin preparing for those exams. 

     Set up a “family time” schedule. There are so many things we can do together, even when parents are working and children are at home for the summer!

     Get up and go for a walk first thing in the morning!  Play board games a couple of nights a week instead of watching the television.  Pull the bikes out of the garage, fill the tires with air (yes find that pump, its’ in there somewhere!), oil the chains and ride!  Learn to skate.  Go swimming!  Build a bird house.  Visit/Join the YMCA or the local fitness club.  Find a baseball league for your son, a softball league for your daughter.  Feed a goldfish.  Visit your local neighborhood parks and ponds.  Feed the ducks, put a line in the water, teach your child how to “skip a rock” across the lake.  Plant a tree.  Plant a garden! 

     One of the most important things that we can do for our children (and our sanity) is:  Make and keep ongoing working lists.  All kinds of lists!  To-do lists. Grocery lists. Chores lists. Wish lists. Let everyone write on them!  Keep them out on the fridge, by the door, wherever your family congregates! Review the lists several times a week as a family.  Keeping lists in the summer is the best way I know of getting your children in the routine of keeping their homework planners during the school year.  Planners well-kept are one of the best indicators (and best kept secrets) of successful students.

     Another important lesson learned at home is: Organization.  Make an “Organization list.”  One space at a time, organize your life!  This week it might be cleaning out and organizing the refrigerator.  Next week it’s the sock and underwear drawers.  Then the cabinets under the sinks, the children’s toy boxes, the tool bench…you have 13 weeks this summer, find ways/places to teach your children to organize…

     Listen to music together.  Trade off.  Listen to theirs’, listen to yours’, listen to your parents’, listen to jazz, classical, country…  There are lots of free concerts, you can check out music CD’s from your local Public Library…bet you didn’t know that, huh?  Music, lyrics, messages all open up conversations.  Listen…as much as you talk…you’d be amazed at what your children will tell you, if they think you are listening.

Well, I guess I can't complain too much, they did let us get through Thursday's Science TAKS test...but before they were even bundled, packed and shipped to Austin today...we got word that LISD will be closing down for a week. 

Now, I'm NOT COMPLAINING about a "free week,"...if we were playing MONOPOLY, we all know what this card would read! 

I keep thinking PINK FLOYD ought to write a sequel...SCHOOL'S OUT FOR SWINE FLU! 

Granted, we don't have to make it up, but what are all these parents going to do come Monday when they have to go to work?  What are the kids going to be doing?  Staying at home and waiting for the pandemic to be over?  Probably not!  They're going to be playing with their school friends in the school yards, on the school basketball courts, on the football, baseball, and soccer fields...unsupervised.

Most of the children don't understand why they are getting this "sudden (albeit "unplanned") break in matriculation...and quite honestly, they aren't the only ones!

Try explaining closing down the school district for "precautionary measures" to 5th graders who until today throught that "SWINE FLU" was called as such because your sinuses got so congested that it made your face and head swell up so badly that your nose perked up like a pig's!  Supposedly, this swollen condition also made it near impossible to talk so you wound up squealing like a pig! In this enlarged condition, your throat became blocked, so you couldn't eat!  Since you couldn't eat, this in turn somehow made you very very hungry...like a pig!!!  You know, SWINE FLU!!!

At the end of the day, the teamwork that brought my kids and my room together made all of the hard work, time, and understanding worthwhile efforts.  By the time we were notified of the cancelation of school for next week...we had less than 30 minutes TOTAL to get everything ready to go home for a week and out the door!  The children sat stuuned for a few seconds as they took in the news...and after an initial sigh of complaint from a few of them about boredom at home...they got it in gear!

 And the love they showed the menagerie of classroom animals that share our living and learning quarters daily...seeing that they were "taken care of" for the week was unbelieveable. 

It made me radiate with pride to watch this group of children who came into my life in August little more than a group of ragamuffins...simply "take over," they made phone calls home, got permission to take home the iguanas, bearded dragons, tree frogs, turtles, fish...they sacked up food, washed and prepared small temporary housing tanks, and made the deadline of getting each staggered group of children out the door (early bus at 3:40: less than 10 minutes to be out the door, Regular bus kids 3:45: less than 15 minutes and then the rest who leave at 3:00). 

There was order in the classroom.  After hearing that the school would be washed down and sanitized, the children stacked the chairs, cleared and pushed back the desks to one corner of the room, and lined up the backpacks, putting in all necessary supplies for the critters that would be traveling to their temporary housing for a week. When the SCHOOL CLOSING FLYERS were delivered to the classroom...these were added to the children's backpacks and one child went to my computer and printed out a copies of the classlist with phone numbers on it so that parents would have a way of getting in touch next week when the real crunch at home begins...one child looked at the list and asked out loud, "So this is networking...kids style, huh?"  I grinned, I'll miss them...but since they have my phone number...I'm sure I'll hear from a few of them next week...

 What will I do for a week?  Read, write, clean house...visit my Mom in San Antonio...and stay in better touch with N-go than I have been in the last month while preparing my children for the Science Taks test.

Well, this is the 11th hour, tomorrow all of our work will literally "be put to the test."

                                                                                                               It has been an interesting week.  A lot goes into the final "countdown" before the TAKS exams. Saturday and Sunday we worked on the final go-round of SCIENCE TAKS review, knowing full-well that no matter how much you prepare the children, it's still their game on test day.

Monday, my Mom calls from San Antonio, and my nephew's ENTIRE SCHOOL DISTRICT (Comal County Schools) has closed down because of the SWINE FLU... until May 15!  Mind you, there is not yet a confirmed case of the SWINE FLU...this is just "precautionary."

 I'm thinking, WOW!  This would NEVER happen in Lewisville (LISD), ESPECIALLY during a TAKS WEEK...and then on Tuesday, we get an e-mail from the Administration that LISD is on some sort of "heightened alert" and we should all exercise caution, and encourage our children to wash their hands thoroughly, sneeze into their sleeves, and stay home if they feel sick and run a fever.  ...during TAKS week...

Today, (Wednesday) while we were all busy giving the children latest round of "strategies for staying well," the World Health Organization puts out a warning that this SWINE FLU might become "pandemic," and then we are told that one of our own LISD schools has been officially closed down for a week, because of three confirmed cases of the flu, with official results of it's actually being the SWINE FLU...still not in.

This evening, I'm just PRAYING that we will get through the night without our school board convening and making a decision that would keep us home tomorrow, and prevent our kids from taking their SCIENCE TAKS exams.

After tomorrow's tests are turned in...I might even welcome the break...but until then, I'll be counting down the hours, minutes and seconds until the last exam is turned in, and we can truly say, "The first round of TAKS testing is done."                      

  Finding a needle in a haystack is easier than finding anything in a Walmart parking lot! Rows and rows of cars, abandoned shopping carts littering the landscape, people going in and out, it is a tossing and ever-changing sea of motion and commotion… Over the years, in my --too many to count--- forays into the Wally-World shopping experience, I’ve seen people looking for lost children, keys, sunglasses, money ... I’ve even seen some who seem to have temporarily lost their minds…but more often than I’d like to admit, I seem to lose something else…

 Have you ever been to a Walmart on a Friday afternoon?  Oh, I bet you have, cause I drive around and around and around the 40 acre parking lot looking for a parking place.  I’m usually DIZZY by the time I find one!  Oh, and I’m healthy…I’m not trying to get a front row slot or anything…last row by the gas pumps is fine by me! I figure I can use the exercise. As soon as I get my very-much “jockeyed for” position, I’m out of my SUV, my doors are “ shut-clicked- and locked," my giant bag of a purse slung over my shoulder, my list in hand, I absentmindedly grab a grocery cart on my way in… and as I walk across the black sea of asphalt we know as the Walmart parking lot…I’m gone!  In my mind, other than watching for cars, I’m already inside the store going through the aisles picking up the items on my list and looking at various and sundry things that are always on my “rainy day with extra money” wish list…not that I’m going to buy them today….but it doesn’t hurt to look and dream about “someday”…

So an hour and a half later, my shopping cart full, I stand patiently in line at the checkout, euphoric…my shopping fix has quelled that burning desire of every normal American woman to purchase things.  I stand behind the counter and as the cashier rings up item after item, I fumble back into reality…I pull out paper or plastic to pay for the loot, and load the carefully sacked Walmart shopping bags into the wagon and I head for the door…

Now, which door did I come in?  What was the first thing on my list?  That must be it, I started in the grocery area, or was it the gardening section?  They’re on opposite ends of the store!  How ridiculous is this?  I do this so often it’s laughable.  So I decide I got groceries before getting the plants, so I must have come in the east door by the foods.  I go outside and look across the sea of vehicles that sit in wait at this “be–all-end-all mecca” of shopping bliss….and I realize, OMG! there are STATES smaller than this parking lot…so I pick a row and start walking down it looking for the Land Cruiser.  It’s big, it’s green, it’s “hard to miss”…unless you are five feet tall and looking for it in the dark, or in a fog, or at all -- when you really don’t remember where you parked your car!

So I walk up and down the rows and rows of parked cars and then I suddenly realize, I have a “clicker”…I pull out my keys and start clicking away!  Over and over I hit the button and listen for my truck’s horn to blow.  If its dark, I look for flashing lights and a loud distinctive wailing drone that would wake the dead!  After more than 20 stabs at the button, I’m beginning to lose hope, there’s too many people in the parking lot, too many cars moving in and around the place.  Suddenly, just when I’m about to decide I will have to return to one end and go up and down every row in the parking lot, I give it one more try.  I’m thinking the clicker must not be working, or surely I would have heard it by now…I turn to walk in the opposite direction, back from whence I came…and then I hear someone yelling, a horn blowing…and I’m thinking "Oh, no!  I hate domestic violence!"  I try not to stare, but human nature being what it is, I look furtively in the direction from which it seems to be eminating…I think I hear something…it’s my horn?  No…it’s a man yelling, “Hey!  Whoever you are…Lady!  I’m sure you’re a lady!  Your car’s over here!!!!”

I just got this new Sprint Instinct Touch phone…so far, I’m not convinced, but (my husband) Mario did show me a cool feature this weekend…it’s got a “built-in” GPS….hmmmm…I wonder if I could mark my “spot” in the parking lot…

This ‘little habit’ of mine is the bane of Mario’s existence, so ‘keeping peace in the family’ takes a little planning.  Normally our family does house-chores on Saturday morning. So if Elvia and I want to go, we start getting our work done on Thursday evening and finish on Friday evening-- that way there’s no excuse for us not to go!

   I’ve done it for 30 years.  My parents didn’t do it, the closest they ever came to modeling this behavior was a period of a couple of years when they would hit a public auction once every couple of months.  I’ve tried to determine what the “attraction” is for me; I think part of it really is “the deal.” I’m not a gambler, but I’ve heard people talk about putting $3 into the slot machine and getting $500 in return. And somehow, I think I can relate to that…  But there is something more. 

   For me, it’s about the ‘ritual.’ It’s about getting up before the crack of dawn, checking the weather and throwing on jeans, a sweatshirt and tennis shoes, running in to the local Starbucks for a cup of coffee with my copy of Friday’s Dallas Morning News, sitting down with my favorite Carmel Latte, searching through the want ads until I find ‘garage sales’ and then scoping out which of the sales I will hit first.  If there aren’t many listed in my area, we just start driving around looking for signs!

   But this still isn’t all of it.  I love getting out into the community, talking to people, looking at the neighborhoods, running into people I know and generally the ‘conviviance’ of it all! And…ofcourse, my mother is half Scots-Irish, I always set myself some limits in both time and money.  I decide ahead of time how much I can spend, and what time I will be home.  Getting home at a ‘reasonable time’ helps keep Mario’s comments and complaints down to a “dull roar.”

   The old adage that one person’s trash is another person’s treasure” certainly holds true in this game for me.  Often it’s as much, if not more-- the availability or uniqueness of the item-- as it is the price. Over the years, I’ve picked up old baker’s boxes, Persian rugs, antique furniture, pottery that is centuries old, typeset drawers, and tiny miniatures to set on them.

    These very special occasions are however, the exceptions, and I remember them in vivid detail. I never set out to find these things though (I would be sorely disappointed, and probably not nearly so addicted), but am always thrilled when I do.  Like the fishermen in my family that get out and go to the coast every chance they get, fishing for trout and red fish, but on rare occasions catch that shark!  It’s kind of like a “bonus” for the effort…a “high” I can’t describe!

   Most of the time, people would view my finds as much more mundane.  But for me, they are still very exciting. Garage Sale shopping enables me to get things for my classroom that I wouldn’t otherwise be able to afford.  I’m a school teacher (on a school teacher’s salary,) so my treasures may be just a little bit odd.

   I’m always on the lookout for used incubators.  Additionally, I look for ‘reasonably priced’ used tanks and aquariums that house my ‘classroom menagerie’ of fish, frogs, toads, turtles, and lizards.  Having ‘container animals’ in the classroom, puts my kids on more of an ‘even playing field’ with their more ‘privileged’ counterparts.  Money, cultural barriers or simply apartment rules and regulations often prevent them from having this experience at home.  My students learn the responsibility of feeding and caring for living creatures.  They also learn about animal classifications and life cycles.  They learn about food-chains, and the different biomes that support life on the planet.  They are a remarkable resource for children who are lacking in experiential knowledge.

   For me, another ‘great find’ that I’m always scouting out, are the large gallon-size glass pickle/olive jars or the clear plastic cracker containers that can be used to build my kid’s ‘biome terrarium projects,’ which they take home at the end of the year. I also look for plants and pottery, kid’s videos, music C.D.’s, and school supplies for my classroom. 

   Mostly though, I’m looking for board games and jigsaw puzzles:  Mancala is by far my students’ favorite, but they also love backgammon, chess, checkers, Clue, and Monopoly.

   My 5^th graders have a lot to learn just to pass the TAKS exams, but I am a believer that while it is my job to prepare them for these exams, it is also my job to prepare them for life.  They must learn the ‘cultural features’ of living in the United States. 

   The ‘strategies’ they learn in playing the board games, will transfer into all aspects of their lives: from ‘reading and problem solving across the academic curriculum’ to ‘ethics and playing by the rules.’  While I don’t spend class time teaching these games, children come in before and after school as well as during lunch and recess to learn and play these games. “Teachable moments” abound in this environment.

   Maybe all of this is, as Mario says, “just an excuse to indulge my habit,” but I can think of worse ways to spend my otherwise unoccupied Saturday mornings.

ON YOUR MARK, GET SET.... 

 GO!!!

Tuesday, March 3 marks the beginning of “TAKS season” in the LewisvilleSchoolIndependentSchool District.  For grades 3, 5, 8 & 9, the test will be: Reading.  At the High School level: Grades 10, and the Exit Level English Language Arts TEST and Retest will be given.

It is important for us to keep in mind that the State of Texas has committed itself to excellence in education for all students.  These exams are designed to make sure that all students who are capable become literate and competent individuals who are educated, trainable and resourceful enough to become contributing members of society.

It is also important to note, (for those of us who went to school before TAKS testing became part of the curriculum,) that the Reading test is no longer strictly a comprehension test.  While there are comprehension aspects incorporated within the test, the exam demands much more insofar as it requires the demonstration of a large number of “higher order thinking skills.”  This means the student must not only read and understand what he/she is reading, they must also be able to think about it, reason through it, analyze it, and compare it to other passages and to other things they’ve read about or done in their life.  This can be a tall order for a College Graduate, so think about the challenge for the High School student or the 5^th grader.

WHAT CAN WE DO?

As teachers and parents, there are a few things we can do to make sure our students are  “TAKS- ready”. 

Parental resources: The Internet

First, Log-on to the Texas Education Agency Website (www.tea.state.tx.us).  Have your child take the online interactive released test that is appropriate for their grade level.

Recognize that the Reading portion of the TAKS exam is a “multiple choice” test.  After your child has taken this online test, review their results with them. 

Then continue on the TEA website and look at the Essential Elements for the exam that your child is about to take.

READING TAKS: GOALS & EXPECTATIONS

On the Reading portion of the TAKS test, they need to be able to:

1) Recognize the main idea and a well written summary (one that contains the main idea and all of the particulars of the: Who? What? When? Where? Why? and How?) of the passage.

2) Recognize the author’s purpose: to inform, to entertain, and to persuade. (Be sure to check out how these questions are worded on the ‘released exams’…normally the question states something like, “the author most likely wrote this story because…”) Students must know whether it was to “teach or tell the reader about” ( to inform), “convince or prove to the reader” ( to persuade), or “relate or amuse the reader” (to entertain).

3) Differentiate fact, non-fact, and opinion.  (Recognize the vocabulary that makes a sentence or paragraph a fact or opinion.  Opinions incorporate “value words” such as ‘good,’ ‘best,’ and ‘beautiful.’  Facts use “concrete words and phrases” that indicate size, number, color and position.

4) Recognize supporting details.  This means your child should understand, analyze, recognize and reproduce the setting (where does the story/passage take place?), plot (what is the problem and how is it resolved?), and the sequence (order of events) in a passage. This also means your child should be able to read and understand maps, graphs, and posters with information, and apply that information to the reading in a passage.

5) Compare and Contrast the information, point of view, purpose and style of two different pieces of text.  (For example, a newpaper article or brochure on the zoo and a letter or journal entry written about the zoo from someone who went there.)

6) Recognize context clues and find word meaning in text (there are normally one or two of these per passage). Being able to read the word in question and substitute each answer back into the text is probably the best strategy for solving these problems, but having a good command of ‘synonyms and antonyms’, ‘multiple meaning words’, ‘prefixes and suffixes’ will all really be useful in getting these answers correct. In high school, students should also have a working knowledge of ‘figurative language’(that is metaphors and similes, hyperboles, alliteration, personification, and onomatopoeia) and semantics (word origins) in order to do well on this portion of the exam.

7) Understand cause and effect relationships, how the author or a character in the passage “feels” (and “why” they feel that way) and be able to predict outcomes based on natural or normal consequences.

8) Recognize inferences and generalizations and draw conclusions based on information in text, and their own personal experience .

MISSION: POSSIBLE

Now, if this sounds like a lot to ask of our elementary school age children, “Welcome to My World!”   I am, however a true believer that all of this can and will happen (even in the fifth grade) by having and working a “plan.”

Sometimes called Reading Strategies or Test Taking Skills, I always have my students do the following:

“MRS. URBAN-PALOMAREZ’S TAKS READING PLAN —”

1)      Read the Title, any subtitles, and graphics which accompany the passage.  This includes looking at pictures and illustrations and reading their captions. Then, think to yourself, “What is this ‘story’ about?”

2)      Next, read all of the questions and possible answer choices.  Pay special attention to the “vocabulary” questions with the “underlined words or phrases.”

3)      Then, read the passage completely through one time.

4)      Reread each paragraph of the passage, (paragraphs are always numbered on the Reading TAKS tests) and make notes in the margin as to the content/main idea of each paragraph.

5)      Make any connections between graphics, pictures and illustrations and the text in the passage.

6)      Now, go to the questions.  Answer each question, one at a time and go back into the passage and “find the answer.”  Use notes in the margin to guide you to your answers.  Note:  some answers may only be ideas (such as summary and main idea, author’s purpose and point of view, and the deciphering of a character’s ‘feelings,’) and some answers may be actual verbatim answers. The answers to other questions may have more than one location in the text.

7)      Underline the answer in the text, and mark your answer choice . (In my classroom we use a method I call ‘double documentation’.  We “prove our answers” by putting the question number by the underlined answer in the paragraph, and the paragraph number at the question site where we’ve made our answer choice.)

8)   “Star” any question you just can’t find the answer for at the question number. After you have answered all of the questions you are sure about, you should return to the “starred questions” for a second look.  Since the test is “multiple choice,” you can usually eliminate one or two of the answer choices.  Making an ‘educated guess’ between the remaining answer choices after looking back through the text is the last step.

9)  Make sure that you have answered all of the questions and that your answer document is bubbled in correctly.

DON’T FORGET…

It is important to remember, and remind your children that this is an “un-timed test.”  Remind them to take “frequent breaks,” stretch their legs and go to the restroom.  As long as the students are actively working on the exam, they should be allowed to finish it.

THE NIGHT BEFORE…That being said, you can (and should) see to it that your kids get plenty of sleep the night before the exam.  Everything including homework, class-work, housework, and extra-curricular activities should take a “back-seat” to the TAKS exam.

THE DAY OF…Kids need a good breakfast, and if your school allows it: a few pieces of hard candy (in case a student begins to get “sleepy” during the exam) a couple of healthy snacks and a bottle of water (check to see if your school is providing something along these lines) for the breaks.  A couple of number 2 pencils with erasers, highlighters and a book to read while others finish the exam, are essentials for taking the TAKS Reading exam.

FINALLY…Be sure and let your children know that this is an important test, but also try to boost their confidence levels by reviewing anything sent home from school (in the way of a TAKS Review) in the weeks prior to the test, and logging on to the TEA website for a look at the “released tests” that are available online.

Good Luck, and Good Testing!

As we wind down the last month before the children begin the first of many standardized state TAKS exams, (in fifth grade there are three: Reading the first week of March, Math the first week of April, and Science the first week in May) the teachers begin to stiffen, the Administrators bristle and the children begin to quake in their boots…and for good reason. As the children progress through their Texas Public Education, the TAKS exams begin to include not only Reading, Math and Science but Social Studies and Writing as well.

     As a fifth grade teacher, who spent 14 years teaching in the High School classroom, I realize that it is essential that children get the basics.  When I look at what fifth graders are supposed to know just to pass a State TAKS exam, I am at times overwhelmed with how far we’ve come in the 40 years since I was in fifth grade.  It’s no wonder we have a network television quiz show called, “Are You As Smart As A Fifth Grader?”

     I’m not a teacher who shies away from State sanctioned examinations.  I’ve spent my teaching career preparing children for the TAAS, and now the TAKS exams.  I’m not a “bellyacher” who complains that the tests are not fair or equitable, nor do I complain about cultural bias. 

     As a bilingual teacher, I often hear that the tests are unfair, that they are culturally biased.  We live in the United States of America.  Our tests are going to reflect some cultural bias.  What we as parents and teachers have to do, is “teach some culture,” and try to provide the types of experiences (daily at home and in the classroom--from books, videos, hands-on experience or a combination of these sources) that are necessary for our children to be successful. 

     I actually may be one of a very small group who actually BELIEVES in the tests, or at least in the importance of testing.  We must not forget that exams are part of our lives, like it or not.  To become a teacher, we must pass several EXCET exams.  Lawyers must pass the “Bar Exam,” doctors, dentists, pharmacists and veterinarians must pass the “Medical Boards.” Today engineers, real estate brokers and salespeople, mortgage loan officers, policemen, firemen, EMT personnel, pilots, postmen and in some places even electricians and plumbers have to pass a test to get a job. 

     Those of us who are responsible for our children’s success (both parents and teachers) must believe that the expectations (standards set by the TAKS test) are credible, reasonable and attainable. Our children must understand that positive consequences follow performance, and that negative consequences will follow poor performance.

     I’m not a ‘Pollyanna’.  I’m not a ‘true believer’.  I’m far from a perfect teacher. I teach in a Title I school, and not all of my children pass the TAKS exams the first or even second time they take them.  I’ve had high school students have to come back to take the exam in the Summer and even the Fall after they should have graduated, in order to “meet the standards” set up by the State for all High School graduates.                                                               

     I have a brother with Downs-Syndrome.  I don’t believe that all children can pass the exams.  I know that there will always be the exceptions.  But those “exceptions” must remain just that—“exceptions.” 

      In the global economy that we have today, we cannot afford to let the “exceptions” become the rule.  In the recession that is currently engulfing our nation and causing long standing businesses to close their doors; when airlines and car manufacturers have to beg the U.S. government (that’s our hard earned tax dollars at work) for a bail-out, more than ever we must become and stay competitive. In order to do that, it is imperative that we set standards, and in doing so, that we set the bar.  

     We must demand excellence of ourselves.  We must demand accountability.  We must understand that of these state exams are aimed at one thing: success.  Success for the student, success for the community, success for the state, success for the country, and with a little hope and humility…success for humanity. 

     Success is won through diligent work, and brought about by setting standards.  By putting “norms” into place, we say “we will accept no less than excellence.” Without standards, we have no goals.  Without goals, we have no direction.  Without direction, we have no future.