Seriously, How Do You Do It?

My apologies for the missing blog last week. I was in Albuquerque with colleagues from other states. We spent time learning how things are working throughout the nation. I maintain TSTA is doing pretty well.

Also information of note: Davis Guggenheim ("Waiting for Superman") will not be making a documentary of Lindsay Lohan. He doesn't feel it's worth his time.

Speaking of time, and what merits my time...

My wife was a single parent last week, and she will be one again at the end of the month.

If you look down on this blog, you’ll see a triangle-shaped graph. It illustrates how important home life is to a student, how important home life is to student learning.

A family friend has breast cancer. She lives alone, and she needs people to help her after each round of chemotherapy. We decided to take a turn. My wife boarded a plane to Minneapolis on Tuesday. She will return on Sunday.

That makes me a single parent.

It started out well enough. I made hamburgers. Then I realized I was out of fries and there were no baked beans in the pantry. Quick trip to HEB (had to do that last night, too).  I think it's tacos tonight, barring a long State Board of Education meeting.

Cook the food. Eat the food. Now time for homework. Deep breath and read fast.

Oldest needs to write flashcards for spelling words. I have a PhD, and I didn’t know some of them. Fifty words! Test tomorrow. Wow. My son had math homework. I checked it and we discussed his errors. We corrected them, and he got to play on my iPhone. My youngest daughter had spelling, as well. We worked through the 25 words, and she wrote the ones she missed three times each. We will retest tonight, and I imagine she will write a few of the same words. We also have to create a diorama by Monday. Not sure what to use to construct a Lipan Apache teepee. Spaghetti is too weak, but pencils are too large. I guess the buffalo (North American Bison) hide will be a paper sack that has been crunched up. We talked but came to no decision. The two younger kids are required to read for 20 minutes a day and practice musical instruments for another 20 minutes. The parent needs to monitor this, as well. What will I be providing for the 4th grade Thanksgiving feast? Will I be attending? We need to sell at least 20 boxes of Girl Scout cookies, I guess. Need to get a present for Friday's birthday party...and Saturday's quincinera.

What time is it, now?

Bed time. Kids need to be at elementary school by 7:15 a.m. One catches the bus at the elementary school to middle school. I have to drive my daughter to high school. 

It’s enough to make a couple stay married. I have always marveled at single-parent families, but I HATE IT when I have to experience the situation.

There are 13 million single-parent household parents. Thirteen million families. Thirteen million sets of children just like mine.

Fix that, Superman.

Self-Proclaimed Experts

Every day, I open my mailbox to about a dozen news briefs from various groups. I was excited when I read a headline from the Association for the Supervision of Curriculum Development's daily Smart Brief: “How Standardized Tests Can Be Made More Meaningful.”

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/10/30/INFT1G2IAQ.DTL#ixzz143upzOZU

Unfortunately, not helpful. At all.

As usual, it was a ridiculous article written by a SPE (Self-Proclaimed Expert).

One of the problems with non-educators—and those who teach for two years, quit, and declare themselves experts—is that they have simplistic answers to complex questions. Here are this woman’s answers:

Are you concerned that because many tests cover only math and reading, schools will pay too little attention to science and history? Then let's make schools accountable for their science and history test scores rather than just math and reading Are you worried that teachers are focusing on test-taking strategies instead of the concrete math and reading skills that students will need in the real world? Then ask rigorous questions that reflect the kinds of skills that allow students to succeed on their paths to becoming doctors, construction workers or computer scientists.

You’ve got to be kidding me…the answer to too much testing is…more tests.

Science Tests (High Stakes)

Social Studies Tests (High Stakes)

Smaller Tests (High Stakes)

Testing More Often (High Stakes)

Harder Tests (High Stakes)

Teacher Evaluations Based on These (High Stakes)

Of course, nobody wins here. We just find more ways to close schools. HUNDREDS more ways. We ask much harder questions in a whole bunch of different subjects. When kids don’t get them right, we close the school and fire the teachers.

Oh, by the way. Here’s the author’s bio:

Miki Litmanovitz was a member of the Teach for America program, in which she taught middle-school math at a low-income school in San Jose. She is completing master's degrees at Harvard Business School and the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, where she is a Zuckerman Fellow through the Center for Public Leadership.

Hey, she doesn’t have to live with it. She quit. Perhaps she’ll write a book now. Or film a documentary.

 It’s just like they say: the further you are from a problem, the more expertise you think you have.