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My husband actually found this app for me as a means to get me salivating for the iPhone G3.  He’s been pulling for it for awhile and trying to convince us to switch our plans to make it happen, so for a couple of months there, my husband has been courting me with educational apps.  

LendMe is an app that allows a classroom teacher to lend out books from the classroom library.  It’s simple: take a picture of the book; take a picture of the kid.  It records the date that the book was borrowed, the title and the name of the kid you lent it to.  The picture of the student is generally enough, and I don’t have to type in the name, but, as I’ve written earlier in my post, “The New Definition of Veteran Teacher,” another way to help put face to names isn’t such a bad idea.

Of course, now that I have the iPhone I wonder what the heck I was balking at.  I’ve never been so hyped for any piece of technology.  It even makes AT&T’s frequently dropped calls worth it.  Make of that as you will.

I will continue to review educational apps as I build up my own iPhone library.  In the meantime, I would love to know what you are all using as well.  

Hope your summer is going well.

-Tweenteacher

You know the old commercial: “You got your chocolate in my peanut butter! Well, you got your peanut butter in my chocolate!” And just like a Peanut Butter cup, it seems that Jane Austin and Zombies go great together.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies combines two very different genres from the farthest poles of the bookshelf.  It smooshes together Empire waists with half-eaten brains.  And, gosh darn it.  It works. (more…)

This year, my 8th graders all produced a multi-genre project during 4th Quarter that focused on possible careers of their choice. But I went a step further with my 8th grade Honors class. They not only had to research a possible career, but they then had to each relate it to educational reform and school design. (more…)

So I’ve been a little quiet as of late.  After all, it’s been the last two weeks of school and I’m in crunch time on some writing deadlines.  In addition, I’ve got to learn some new-fangled strategies using the Interactive Whiteboard so I can train new teachers in a couple of weeks, even though I still feel like a novice in the technology.  Amongst it all, however has been a sweet pinpoint of light:  I was interviewed recently by David Woolf over at TeachersCount.org.  It was posted today, and you can read our exchange here.  

TeachersCount is a website devoted to celebrating teachers.  Their mission is to “raise the status of the teaching profession and provide resources to the education community.”  You may recognize their poster campaign, ”Behind Every Famous Person is a Fabulous Teacher.”  Regardless of their current level of notoriety, you should definitely take note of them…and I’m not just saying that because they made me look so good in my interview.  I’m saying it because they are devoted to serving those who are devoted to education…you.  

I have been teaching for 10 years.  I have mentored teachers, become Department Head, sat on committees, presented at conferences, and taught upwards of 2500 students ranging from 3rd grade to 12th grade.

But all of that does not make me a veteran teacher.

What makes me an official veteran teacher is the fact that I have hit my memory wall.  The computer that is my brain is beginning to empty the trash, student by student at a time.

This is the first year I’ve been approached by past students I cannot name.  This is also the first year I still don’t have some students’ names memorized.  Yes, it’s true; it’s May, and I still get those two girls mixed up in Period 2 and those same 3 girls confuddled in 4th period.   Don’t look shocked.  I mean, don’t I get any credit for having the rest of my 237 students down pat?  No?  Damn. (more…)

“So you’re a teacher, huh?” says the umpteenth Joe know-it-all.  I know the tone, and I know what’s coming.  “Must be nice having summer’s off,” he sneers.

I don’t know what mythical job this guy thinks I have, but I have never had a summer off.  

I don’t know who these teachers are who are supposedly laying around all summer sippin’ sangrias without a thought of prepping for the year before them.  But I’m not one of them.  

In fact, is there really a “them?” (more…)

The latest Carnival of Education is in town.  I always check out Larry Ferlazzo’s posts for some curriculum innovation as well as Scott McLeod’s just for some new perspectives on ed leadership.  And, of course, tweenteacher’s in there as well.  Enjoy the Carnival!

OK, I admit it.  I watched Glee last night on Fox after American Idol just because Ryan Seacrest told me to.

Stand aside Lean On Me, Teachers, Dangerous Minds, and Freedom Writers.  This new fall program, whose pilot aired last night after Idol, is the most accurate (and palatable) depiction of public school life that I’ve seen in a long time.  After all, who really wants to watch a show about teachers being taken advantage of, budget cuts, and student achievement?  Makes for some boring entertainment as we all found watching David Kelley’s 2000 drama, Boston Public.  Until now.

Humor, it seems, it mightier than the sob.

Basically, Glee’s A-story is about a teacher who offers to teach Glee Club and is told by all that it’s worthless.  His heart, however, says it’s not.  The B-story is about the kids who struggle to climb out of their adolescent roles and into something that actually means something to them.  It’s “The Breakfast Club” for geeks.

I know it’s cheesy and cartoony and full of dreams (I mean does your school have such vibrant wall colors?), but there’s something this show has captured that those dramatic movies only tell you they have: heart.  And heart is what abounds in every school, from the most privileged to the most challenged.  Jeesh, I sound like an ad.  

Best beats of the show include:

-Our lead shows up in the principal’s office to offer to teach Glee Club.  He’s told that’ll be 60 bucks per month.  ”Wait, and you expect me to pay for it?”  Not only is he told that he has to pay for it, but because of budget cuts, if he wants the elective he’s got to do after-school detention for free.

-Later, the principal tells him that AA wants to host their meetings in the Glee Club’s auditorium.  ”Lots of drunks in this town.  And they’re willing to pay me $10 a head.”  

-There are no glass coffee pitchers in the Mr. Coffee machine in the lounge.  Why?  Budget cuts.

-The teacher has to consider whether to pursue what he loves (teaching) or get a job with better money and benefits having just found out his wife’s pregnant.

-The monologue by Best in Show’s Jane Lynch.  When asked if some of her award-winning cheerleaders wouldn’t mind joining Glee Club, she responds, “OK, what’s you’re doing right now is called ‘blurring the lines.’  High school is a caste system.  Kids fall into certain slots.  Jocks and your popular kids: up in the penthouse.  Invisibles and the kids playing live-action-druids-and-troll-out-in-the-forest: bottom floor.” He asks, with trepidation where the glee kids are.  ”Sub-basement,” she replies.  

The list goes on. I’m not doing it justice.  But I tell you that compared to your typical, bad-kids-until-some-A-lister-comes-along-to-turn-them-on-to-learning-and-show-the-school-that-the-losers-really-do-matter flick, this show was brilliant.  

And don’t even get me started on the background collegiate a capella music as the soundtrack.  Sigh. Brought me back, let me tell you. 

The only negative thing I’ll say about Glee at this time (it is a pilot, after all, and character arch has yet to come) is the little scene in the beginning with the flamboyantly gay teacher brushing a student’s chest.  Although stereotypes abound in Glee in great even-handedness, portraying the homosexual teacher with the eyes for his student seems like there’s more at stake in the laugh than the dullard, bullying football coach character.  Plot-wise, it was a ploy to have the teacher fired so that our protagonist can move in and take over glee club.  Plot-wise it was also so that fired teacher could go off and make a living dealing weed, thus earning more than his mere teacher’s salary could ever garner him.  But could they not have gotten rid of this character in a way that doesn’t feed into the terror of the hearts of homophobic parents everywhere?  As my dear friend who brought this to my attention said, “Where was GLAAD in all this?  How did they let that through?”

It’s always wise to talk to many people, to get their perspectives, and to see through their eyes.  Despite this one line-crossing, however, we both agreed that Glee has the potential to earn our audience when it returns in the fall.

The pilot episode ends with our band of misfits singing, “Don’t stop believing.”  Their teacher, giving in to his own passion for teaching finally believes.  And we the audience cheers for the fall school and TV season to begin so that we might be gleeful once more.

I’m not a big Survivor fan.  I mean, I really hate what the people become when pitted against each other.  So I don’t watch it…at least not on TV.  So when I read Scott McLeod’s post suggesting that school communities vote off their least popular teacher, “dismissal by consensus”, it’s not that I don’t feel his pain, I mean the bottom 10% of any school is enough to destroy the accomplishments of 90%, but I worry that schools are headed to that witch hunt place.

We all know there are teachers out these who shouldn’t be in the classroom, but many of them gave years of great service prior to burning out.  Many of these teachers mean well, want to communicate content, but simply don’t have the skills.  Yes, some need out, and the process to exit them is inappropriate in its difficulty, but we can’t be after blood.

Our anger should be less about the broken teacher, and more about the broken system.  There are cruddy people in every profession, but cruddy teachers are allowed to remain longer, doing damage to the company (the schools) and their product (learning).

This article examines the anger and the levels of importance people desperately need to see the problem solved.  

Let us all be warned: we need to be a part of the solution or let the games begin.