School Kit

Mel's donations to my class have been invaluable in both stoking the student's interest in science and helping motivate them towards certain goals.

Here's a couple older photographs of the display I set up using the material donated by Mel.
This is from 4 years ago. I am now in a new classroom teaching 6th grade (science focus = geology), but the set up is the same. Display case with rough and polished samples. Pinned on board above, the selection of rocks the students are able to pick from for various actions.



At one point, I had 70 different types of stones represented. Presently, my current board is down to about 35. I haven't been tumbling lately and Mel's hoard from a couple years ago in CA, I believe, was pared down for his move - so he doesn't have some of the stones available he used to.

As for science and teaching and the school system - I wrote a big long response and then got depressed and deleted it. I'll only say that the drive by school boards and politicians to educated students and meet the demands of no child left behind has led to rigid, very strict guidelines that cater to the least able teachers rather than the most able/imaginative ones.
I developed a system that forces students to learn their multiplication facts. I'm in 6th grade. Times tables are 3rd grade. Only 6 out of 35 usually pass my 1st mult fact quiz at the beginning of the year. Over 25 pass by October. It takes 5 minutes a week to do and the paper to print the quiz on fridays. No real cost. No real class time. I shared it with other teachers and they got the same results when they followed my guidelines. I've been doing this for 5 years now and each year validates the system (Admittedly it's a boring system but by 6th grade I have other things to teach besides mult...but without mult the students can't work fractions or ratios or % which make up the core of 6th grade math.) So I showed another teacher at a different school. She showed it to her principal, and the principal said "NO. It's not part of the adopted curriculum. You can't do it."
I could have fallen over. Principals are so concerned about sticking to the system they are blind to innovation unless it's paid for and given the stamp of approval by the district.
From my experience - yes there are bad teachers, and I know a couple, but there are many who are great but buried under the cr*p that the district throws on them - such as combo classes. With so many teachers cut, we have 3 of them at our school. (Combo - two grade levels in one class). My language class has been interrupted 8 times this year for photos, assemblies, Police Displays, ELD testing, fluency testing, and other things. Teaching non-english proficient students better english has led to classes that combine three grade levels and have 13 students while english proficient students have been funneled into classes with 43 students at the same time. Yes, non-english students need to be educated, but at the cost of having 43 students in a class? Talk about burning out a teacher.
And don't get me going on time to teach science or social studies. With all the other mandated class I have to teach, I only have 4 1/2 hours a week to teach either PE/Writing/Social Studies/and Science. We're given a books for Social Studies and Science that are designed for a 55 minute class a day - each - for the whole year - and I have enough time to really only teach one of them...unless I slash 1/2 or more of the curriculum...
Also, in my school we have 3 six grade classes. In the last 3 years we've had 7 teachers rotate through. In 5th grade, we've had 8. With the no hiring of teachers, these spaces are filled not with permanent teachers but with teachers with their credentials who are not offered permanent status. Each year these teachers migrate to another grade level. It takes time to fully understand what and how to teach the standards of a new grade level. Every time you shift a teacher to a new grade, you essentially have created a new teacher.
And don't get me going on some of the parents I run into. You definitely can see the students who have no structure or discipline or responsibility at home.
I love my job. I believe all my students can do better. I treat them that way. I also tell them that there are expectations for their academic performance and there are expectations for their behavior. I tell them it is not by their words that they are assessed, but by their behavior - in both areas. I treat them with respect until the point by their actions they lose it, and then I let them know.
We elect presidents in my class and people lose the ability to vote or hold office if they break the rules of our classroom society, and the presidents can be dropped if their behavior does not fit the status of their elected position.
But if there are consequences for actions there are also rewards. Some are intrinsic, but I also use extrinsic incentives. I will give stones or homework passes or a pass to read a book to a 2nd grade class. We can be so concerned with the negatives that we lose sight of giving attention to the quiet great students we have that don't eat up ten or 15 minutes of out time each day.
You gotta get the students to 1) trust and 2) believe you believe in them. You gain so much from that...
dag-nab-it...
There's times I just don't feel respected by the public. (Not talking about Mel...we've had this discussion before...)
And so, uh...I did it again...wrote a long post... I guess I've been feeling frustrated at work lately and I chose here to vent.

I apologize for venting...I'd erase this again but I'm sure my fingers will just reinvent what I deleted.

Merry Christmas everyone.

Awesome job, Mel. I'm also impressed how much you give to the kids and teachers. (oh - and rocks and minerals are directly taught in 4th and 6th grade) Thank you,

Lowell