I AM NOT DEAD!!!

Contrary to popular rumor, I AM NOT DEAD!!!

My school has been keeping me so busy. Our TAKS scores were not as good as they could have been and the administration is running around; running our asses into the ground to get the scores up.

My response to them is, "You cannot get blood from a turnip!"

My fellow educators and I are working our butts off to do the very best job possible, but when you have students who are more interested in gang banging, sex, drugs and whatever entitlements they feel they deserve from the government, people who care cannot do much more than they already do.

We are fighting a culture that does not value education and in such a venue, immediate gratification is what they want; what they demand; what they expect.

In any case, I am back to posting whenever I can get my head above water.

My Lovely Bride and I commented the other day that retirement looks mighty good right now.

Time will only tell.

"I don't have to tell you things are bad. Everybody knows things are bad. It's a depression. Everybody's out of work or scared of losing their job. The dollar buys a nickel's worth; banks are going bust; shopkeepers keep a gun under the counter; punks are running wild in the street, and there's nobody anywhere who seems to know what to do, and there's no end to it.

We know the air is unfit to breathe and our food is unfit to eat. And we sit watching our TVs while some local newscaster tells us that today we had fifteen homicides and sixty-three violent crimes, as if that's the way it's supposed to be!

We all know things are bad -- worse than bad -- they're crazy.

It's like everything everywhere is going crazy, so we don't go out any more. We sit in the house, and slowly the world we're living in is getting smaller, and all we say is, "Please, at least leave us alone in our living rooms. Let me have my toaster and my TV and my steel-belted radials, and I won't say anything. Just leave us alone."

Well, I'm not going to leave you alone.

I want you to get mad!

I don't want you to protest. I don't want you to riot. I don't want you to write to your Congressman, because I wouldn't know what to tell you to write. I don't know what to do about the depression and the inflation and the Russians and the crime in the street.

All I know is that first, you've got to get mad.

You've gotta say, "I'm a human being, goddammit! My life has value!"

So, I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the window, open it, and stick your head out and yell,

"I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!!" - Howard Beale in the movie "Network" -

I Am Tired Today!!!

As I stated in previous posts, my school completed the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) last week. I was back teaching my regular classes today and as I predicted, there was not much enthusiasm from the students.

I do wonder about their lack of motivation, but I can understand their lack of "get up and go."

After being hammered on for 7-plus months about TAKS, they are tired. In fact. I AM ALSO TIRED.

I had them work a review sheet that I had set aside for the substitute I was suppose to have today. I started feeling better late Sunday, so I canceled the substitute and came to work this morning.

Student look long and hard for the end of the spring semester. I remember when I was in school. Summer time meant family trips, going to the swimming pool, baseball and a general and overall time of R&R.

As a etacher, I understand their eagerness for summer to get here. After this year, I will most likely be more appreciative of it's appearance than the students.

"School's out for summer." - Alice Cooper (well, almost)

More on the Upcoming TAKS Tests

We have TAKS Reading-ELA Test and two release TAKS tests next week.

Every teacher, administrator, and staff member will be involved.

I will be glad when it is over. At least we will have a break until the May tests.

"I have said this before: TAKS SUCKS!" - Texas Truth

TAKS Prep Is KILLING Me!!!

Preparation for the upcoming TAKS Release Tests is kicking my butt. I will be so glad when they and the real TAKS test are over.

" Education today is all about TAKS. Policies like this one are just to make the administrators look good." - Quote from the Wichita Falls (Texas) "Times Record News"

TAKS Testing is FINISHED!!!!

After four days of non-stop testing, monitoring, walking around the classroom, and general BS, TAKS Exit Testing is over for 2008.

I am so glad. I have never looked forward to a weekend like I have to this one. Come Monday, we are back on track, but as far as the students are concerned, SCHOOL IS OVER!!!

We have five weeks left in school. Summer cannot get here soon enough.

“One's work may be finished some day, but one's education never” - Alexandre Dumas Père

"The Kingdom" with Jamie Foxx and Jennifer Garner

Last night, Texas Truth and his lovely bride of 24 years had a date night. I know that concept is a current PC idea and it has a meaning of a "special evening" together with one's significant other. Actually, the night out came to past because we both got out of our teaching duties early and decided to go to an early movie.

After scanning the paper, we decided to see "The Kingdom" with Jamie Foxx and Jennifer Garner. I have never been a big fan of either performer, but I had seen some of the previews for the movie and felt we would enjoy it.

The movie was excellent. I recommend it to everyone. It had action, intrigue, and just the right amount of suspense. Go see it if you enjoy those types of movies. All the performers did an excellent job.

What made me post about the movie was a line from a scene in the movie. Without giving away the plot, the scene had a high ranking Untied States government official in a meeting with the head of the FBI. The official was accusing the FBI director of some sort of impropriety. As their conversation progressed, the FBI director commented about his time as a government employee and his service in Vietnam. He states that when he was serving in Vietnam, his commander (General William Westmorland) had all his officers write their own obituaries.

The FBI director stated that after that happened, they realized that their job (and life) was finite and it was going to end sometime. Once that fact was realized, they (the officers) were at peace in their minds they didn't worry about dying as much.

He further stated that he viewed his job with the FBI as finite and it was indeed going to end sometime in the future. He knew that fact and accepted it. The only question in his mind was whether he was going to leave the job on his knees or on his feet. He felt confident that everything he did was correct and had no regrets about what his decisions had been.

My description of this scene may not be exactly correct, word for word, but it did make my loving spouse and I discuss it on the ride home as it related to our jobs as educators.

A great deal of "CRAP" has been piled upon us and many other teachers in recent days, months and years. Moral around both of our schools is very low, and we are only half way through the fall semester. Pressure about TAKS testing, student discipline and "No Child Left Behind" is giving many educators sleepless nights and stress they do not need.

Many high ranking education officials seem only interested in pushing their objectives and desires with little regard for what is truly needed to educate students.

We both talked on the ride home and decided that his statement indeed applied to our jobs. We, along with many other teachers, are concerned that we are dinosaurs and will be forced out because of our conservative views and high standards that we demand from our students. If this does happen, then it happens. We are going to go out on our feet.

Indeed, we will not be in our current positions forever . Yes, we are comfortable in our current positions and very much love our jobs. But when that day does come and the "powers that be" decide that we are no longer a part of THEIR objectives for education, our time will come to an end.

That will then be the time for us to move on and try something else. After all, we are are both educated individuals and can find other jobs and positions. Looking at all the people out in the world whom can hardly function with their education level, but indeed do, I know we will be fine.

We are both going to go out on our feet, knowing that we did the very best job we could for the students we taught.

I Am Back....I Have Not Been Silenced!!!

I am back...I have not been silenced.

The past days school days have been pure HELL for all teachers in Texas.

The past ten days have been a nightmare that all teachers in Texas dread.

In Texas, we call this hell and nightmare TAKS.

The TAKS test, the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills. The evaluation instrument that is used to determine if students graduate from high school.

It is all part of the "No Child Left Behind" program. The only thing I can say is it doesn't work. Teachers spend all their time preparing their students for TAKS. As a result, little time is left for true classroom instruction of the relevant subject matter.

I could write volumes about TAKS, but I will not. I will leave that to others. But I would like to explain where I have been and what I have been doing.

My time the past two weeks has been taken up by preparing my lessons in one last ditch effort to help my students pass TAKS.

I have been so tired when I get home that I have little time to post and even less time read what other have blogged.

With any luck, I will be able to post some this weekend and next week. Much has happened in the news this week and I want to posting my thoughts, read other people's blogs, and get back into the blogsphere.

It would have been easy to just blow off the TAKS preparations and let the student's scores "fall where they will."

In my right mind, I couldn't do that. Even though much of TAKS is ridiculous and many of my students couldn't care less about passing TAKS, much less graduating, I still feel the need to try.

My father told me many years ago if you agree to do a job, do the best you can; all the time.

If I didn't, I would not be able to look at myself in the mirror.

Mayde Creek HS Seperates Races For TAKS Rally

Mayde Creek High School Principal O.D. Thompson separated students into While, Black, and Hispanic groups to talk to them about their TAKS scores.

Now the public is up in arms, saying his actions are an act of segregation.

I don't think the principal had any malicious intent. I feel he was trying to get the students focused on TAKS.

As I have said numerous times, the TAKS test is a waste of time. Most teachers spend the majority of their instruction time preparing their students for this test. If a teacher teaches low level classes, most, if not all of the time is spent preparing the students for it.

Never mind that the students miss instruction on other thing; the outcome of the TAKS test is how students, teachers, schools, and administrators are judged.

In this day and age of everyone having to feel special, many are afraid they will be judged intolerant, racist, or any one of many terms that are used to label people if they say or do anything that people find offensive.

Those who feel "offended" need to get a life. Thsi principal was trying to do something positive.

Here is a post from the Houston Chronicle.

Administrators at a Katy school are facing criticism from parents after holding separate assemblies for black, white and Hispanic students to address low scores on the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills test.

The assemblies at Mayde Creek High were held for ninth- and 10th-grade students of different ethnicities to discuss steps to boost scores on the state-required test, said district spokesman Steve Stanford. He said only students at risk because of their scores were called to the meetings, and that no negative message was intended.

"The purpose was to encourage and to help at-risk students," Stanford said.

But Amber Queen, whose son is in the ninth grade, disagreed with the decision.

"I would think that they would bring all kids and talk to them at once," she said.

School principal O.D. Tompkins, who is black, decided to hold the sessions, Stanford said. He said test scores at Mayde Creek have lagged, and a higher proportion of students are at risk of failing the math and science portions than at some other district high schools.

The first meeting, held before spring break, assembled black students. The sessions for Hispanic and white students were held after spring break.

Tompkins didn't consider it humiliating or discriminatory, Stanford said.

Kevin Tatum, co-founder of the Katy Citizen Watchdogs, which monitors school performance and spending, said he did not yet have all the facts. "But if they did separate by race, what was the point?" he asked.

Stanford said students were segregated because that's how the state looks at and reports achievement. The separate assemblies apparently did not violate district rules, Stanford said.

Perhaps the people who are judging this principal should use their time to help their child do better in school.

In addition, perhaps the principal should have thought this one out a bit better. Having been an former administrator, I would have realized this could be taken the wrong way.

But what is a principal to do when students have lower grades, even lower prospects, and couldn't care less about school and education.

After all, many of them think they are going to be a world famous rapper, play professional sports, or become rich and famous. The funny thing is they don't have any ideas on how to get there. They think it is going to magically happen.

Perhaps an education would help? You think?

After all, that is what the principal was trying to do; prepare them for a better life.

One question I have is: If it is ok for the state to break down TAKS scores by race and ethnicities and judge the school and their personal on those groups, why can't the principal break the students down the same way to help them pass?

This is just some food for thought.