A Certified Teacher In Every Class

On tonight's news the Board of Education announced that there would be a certified teacher in every classroom this year. The only problem is they are not certain in what areas the teacher will be certified and will not even know until November how many teachers will be teaching subjects they are not certified to teach. I guess it doesn't matter if a math teacher is teaching Chinese or a physical education teacher is teaching math, as long as they are certified to teach. And we wonder why our kids are not succeeding!

Summer School Update Continued

My friend is no longer having administrative problems, but he problems with some of her students continues. There is one boy in her first two classes. The first class he always sleeps through. Why anyone would bother to go to summer school to sleep in beyond my comprehension. He must really enjoy the school air conditioning. He woke up in the second class and asked her if she ever thought about having three men at once? Although I have been teaching for 30 years and have heard many outlandish comments in my time, I still can't believe a young punk would have the nerve to say something like this to a 50+ year old teacher. A different friend is teaching a subject called "Other Math". In my 30 years, I have never seen a curriculum or a book for Other Math. She told me there are kids in the class (high school) that do not know how to add. One boy, who got a 4 on the first test and an 8 on the second told her she better pass him because he is a graduating senior. The principal of my school seems to feel that we should be able to teach all kids, regardless of where they are coming from or what issues they might have. Kids that ask inappropriate questions and make threats have no business being in school. Teachers should not have to deal with them.

On Staff Developers

On a trip from Budapest to Vienna, I met a very interesting woman from Canada. We talked for quite a while and finally realized that we were both teachers, or as she said, "I used to teach. Teaching eighth grade math was just too difficult, so now I am a staff developer." I guess that throughout the world those that can't teach become the teachers of others.