The Median Sib

Yesterday I wrote about reading a book entitled Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy.  Last  night, after RT was asleep, Jake was still making noises and I couldn’t sleep.  So I dragged a warm blanket to the recliner in the guest bedroom, settled back and finished reading the book.  It took a couple of hours, and I wasn’t in bed until after 1:20 a.m.  However, the book was worth it.  First, let me provide a warning to parents and teachers:  There are a few damns and hells in the book.  And the storyline is one for older children.  The story takes place along the Maine coastline in the early 1900’s.  It’s about racism, meanness and greed in the guise of Christianity.  Good triumphs over evil . . . sometimes, but not always.  And because good doesn’t always triumph, there is destruction and death.  Several deaths.  What startled me when I read the information at the end of the book is that the book is based on a true story. 

I won’t tell you anymore about the storyline.  However, if you have a upper elementary or junior high student who can handle a little profanity and a disturbing storyline, it is an excellent book.  I understand why it is a Newbery Honor book.  The story will stay with me for a long time.

Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy  

In reading the Cotillion email, I came across reference to this gem from The Nose on Your Face.

Republicans Hint that Self-Immolation Might Be More Effective than Anti-War Hunger Strikes

With the elections just a few days away, Republicans continue to scoff at anti-war hunger strikes as “rookie stuff” and have quietly suggested that the anti-war movement should elevate their game if they really want results.

“Yeah, the notion of Cindy Sheehan surviving on banana smoothies for a couple days really has us up nights,” said one Bush staffer. “These guys have really got to step it up if they want to be taken seriously. They need to draw on the heritage of their 1960s anti-war predecessors. I’m pretty sure that if the bunch of them set themselves on fire, we’d take notice.”

Self-Immolation has been practiced as a means of protest throughout history, but was most common during the Vietnam War, when several Buddhist monks and American citizens burned themselves to death.

“If Cindy Sheehan, Susan Sarandon, Sean Penn and Danny Glover were all simultaneously lit up like torches, we’d probably have the troops home in a couple weeks,” continued the staffer. “I mean, I can’t promise anything– I’m just free-lancing here. But that sort of…demonstration of commitment…might get us to realize the error of our ways. I might be going out on a limb here, but a crispy Barbra Streisand might be worth a roll back of the tax cuts. Hell, I’d marry a gay Hollywood producer and adopt several Pakistani refugees if you set Alec Baldwin ablaze.”

Conservatives have a hilarious sense of humor.

Tiara-tip to Linda at Something . . . and Half of Something

I got up early this morning - was at my church for a “clean the church” workday before 8:00.  I scrubbed scuff marks off the white pews for about an hour and a half, and then drove to my school where I’m spending the rest of my Saturday morning preparing for the evaluation/observation (i.e. comprehensive assessment) I’ll have on Tuesday. 

Words can’t express how much I dislike doing this.  The weather is gorgeous, the sun is shining, the sky is blue, it’s a cool and crisp fall day with spectacularly colored leaves on the trees, and here I sit - inside, at my desk preparing for my evaluation.  Instead of being outside helping RT clear the land for our house or back at church doing something truly worthwhile, I’m stuck inside completing meaningless paperwork.

The paperwork is mind-numbing.  What are my areas of strength as a teacher, and what are my reasons for selecting those areas of strength?  What are my areas for growth and the reasons for selecting those areas for growth?  That comprises the first two pages of paperwork.  I haven’t started on anything yet because I just hate it.

Then I must answer the following questions about the lesson I will teach on Tuesday morning - notice the explanations in parentheses for anyone who can’t figure out the first part:

(1)  What is the student goal(s)/objective(s) for the lesson?  (What is the ultimate desired outcome of this lesson?)  In the event that students are working on individual objectives, choose 2 or 3 students and provides their objectives.

(2) What information do you have regarding your students’ current abilities in relation to this objective(s) and how has this impacted the design of this lesson?

3.  What teaching strategies will you use to teach this objective? (How will you accomplish your objective(s)?)

4.  What are the student indicators of success within this lesson?  (What behaviors will you look for to determine whether or not the students are meeting the objective(s)?)

5.  Identify the data which will be collected to evaluate the students’ achievement of the goal(s)/objective(s).

6.  What future assessments will you use to determine the retention and ongoing application of today’s learning?

7.  What is the relationship of this lesson to the larger unit of study and to your annual goals?

8.  Do you have any concerns at this point regarding this lesson or these students?

Then there is another page for the “Reflecting Information Record” that has seven more questions to be done after the evaluation/observation.  I won’t bore you by writing those out.  Then there are (I SWEAR it’s true) SIX more pages of paperwork to finish after that.  There’s an “Educator Information Record” and “Professional Growth Plan” and a “Future Growth Plan.”  Right now I have no idea what the difference is in those last two.  Guess I’ll find out soon.

Yes,  I’m procrastinating by writing this post instead of working on the work (that’s a joke that some of my readers may get - depending on what books your school system requires you to read).  But REALLY, is all this paperwork crap necessary? 

(Warning: totally unrelated observation ahead)  Ahhh — looking out my window right now I see a bluebird on the corner of the building across from me.  How beautiful!  He just flew down and landed on the grass outside my window.  One bright spot in a rather dismal Saturday morning.

Back to the topic at hand:  I’ll get the work done.  I’ll go through the observation on Tuesday - and one or two more observations after that.  After over 25 years of teaching, it doesn’t bother me anymore to have a principal or anyone else watch me teach.  It’s second nature now.  But this #^%&%#%#% paperwork!  I hate it!  Why can’t I just SHOW how my lesson is guided by our county and state standards, and how the lesson was planned based on various assessments and student needs?   That’s just too practical.  Just as teachers have to assess and document students to death - so administrators must assess and document teachers to death. Did I mention how much I hate this process?  GRRRRR!