Assigned Blog

Assigned blogs are the worst. But I guess I need to write one real quick.

A policy or procedure that’s working well for me? Pop quizzes! A true innovation to say the least…

I’m told constantly to keep my students working from bell-to-bell. But what really are they learning from warm-up activities except to be docile? I’d much rather start with a brief casual conversation while taking attendance before launching into the lesson – it sets a happier mood and builds rapport with my students, which is definitely more my style than ruling with an iron fist. The students complain about the incessant busy work to which they are subjected by most other teachers, so I tend to think they relish the fact that I don’t see them as trainable monkeys but rather as minds to be cultivated. (Wow, I can really lay it on, huh?)

But then district evaluation time draws nigh, and I need to incorporate some bell work at the beginning of class. Same old story – students who will do their work regardless put some thought into it while the rest do not, and either hand in garbage or copy. So, rather than call it a “Do Now” assignment, I give pop quizzes at the beginning of every class. The students know that they need to study for every class and have their desks cleared when they arrive. That way, the assistant principals can assume I’m a good teacher for no other reason. The quiz format helps me keep all students studying and memorizing what they should be, not just the students who would anyway, but it also isolates itself nicely from the rest of class – we can take a breather for a few moments before getting back into the lesson. Then, I can grade them at random. For example, I might throw all of them out for a couple of days but then the third day grade them, and the students will never know ahead of time. I’ve found that the students tend to enjoy the challenge and get caught up in randomness of it after awhile, so that it doubles as an attention getter: “Oh no, don’t grade that one Mr. Jones!” or “You gotta grade that one, I aced it!”

So, yeah, there’s my procedural success. On to a few other notes.

I noticed that one or several people are making some immature, uncalled-for comments to some of my blogs. While I appreciate the readership and interest, I do not appreciate careless personal attacks. Remember, this is my graduate homework, and even though I’ll always poke fun at the fact that this is so, still. Be civil. In this forum, we are gentlemen and scholars.

Lastly, I’m going to take some time to copy and paste some of my papers I’ve written for Dr. Mullins as individual blog entries. I’ve been mentioning in class the idea that education is not equal for all because Americans and the capitalist economy cannot allow this to occur by definition though we may nominally try, which renders people like we in the Teacher Corps as so many more cogs in the wheel of an unjust, exploit or be exploited society a la Marx. What I’ve written is far from finished, but the wily Mr. Guest has requested it, and it’s worth mentioning. The idea is that as a society we’re not going to truly change or fix anything until we decide that we truly wish to and take an honest approach at criticizing the status quo. Feel good stories and optimistic manipulated statistics have not addressed the philosophical challenges in America’s schools, which is why billions of dollars are invested in our children for little return. And even if it isn’t possible to make the positive changes we all wish to, at least we can attempt to end the bullshit and be honest and cognizant about the sources and consequences of what drives our society.