Difficult Students Don’t Always Misbehave

I teach mostly online these days, and while I don’t have the normal classroom disruptions that face-to-face teacher confront, I do have instances of difficult students.  This week has reminded me once again of the over-achiever/know it all student.

Don’t get me wrong: I do admire over-achievers, and once upon a time I was one of the students who always did her work, turned it in on time, and even put in the extra effort to get the best grade possible.  However, I never proceeded to criticize a teacher or admonish her for anything she did with her class.  I may have griped behind her back to my friends, but I never confronted her aggressively.  I did questions my grades and comments on my assignments, but never with criticism in my voice (that I know of).

But I am finding more and more the aggressive student – one who feels like it’s okay to call out a teacher publically or with a tone.

What got me riled this week?  This week one of my students caught me on a typo where I used the correct chapter title, but I used an incorrect chapter number.  I certainly made a mistake and it probably stemmed from updating my class from a previous edition of the textbook.  The email was okay, but she also posted that portion on the discussion board – to make it more public (although she posted that without the tone of the email). And then in the same email she proceeded to complain that other students were not turning in quality posts in the discussion board when she put every effort to craft responses that are well written and error free.

How did I handle her?  Carefully.  Seriously, I thanked her for pointing out my mistake and that I would take care of it.  What can I do?  A mistake is a mistake, and it’s better to acknowledge it.  As to her second point about the quality of work form other students, I told her the truth:  I have no control over what students turn in.  I outline the standards that I will hold them to, and I grade students according to the material they turn in.  I also said that she should continue to work hard and submit quality work.

I could have written to her that it is none of her business what other students do, but that would have just escalated the situation.  I could have also said that FERPA prevents me from discussing other students’ grade with her.  There are so many things I could have responded with and did in my own mind, but I didn’t.  I am the instructor of the course, and I am a professional.  I have to temper my responses to the situation and show the student that I am the instructor of the course and certainly in charge of it.

I have had students like her before, and I will continue to have ones like her again.  But my previous experiences have taught me how to handle the aggressive ones that feel empowered to push the boundaries – with restraint and professionalism.

A Site to Make Math Homework Easier

School has begun, and now my children are coming home and needing math homework help.  Although I excelled at math, I have to admit I’m rusty.  The other night, my daughter didn’t believer that all her addition and subtraction of mixed fractions was wrong.  They were, and I knew it, but she made me doubt myself.  Now, I’m a techie.  I teach English online.  I design Web sites.  And I consult for people who have technology problems.  I turned to the Internet, and I began arming myself with sites that would help me get through homework challenges with my kids when it comes to math.  I’ll start with the one that convinced my daughter that I was right, and she was wrong and needed to redo her homework.  She got 100% percent I might add and understood it complete.

Calculator Soup - http://www.calculatorsoup.com/

I love this site because it didn’t just give you the answers.  It showed you the steps to the answer.  Without those steps, my daughter would not have believed me.  Another good feature of this site is that input is easy.  Some math sites, you have to put the problems in such an awkward manner that you confuse a child who is already struggling.  One thing I must say, however, is that it solved the problem different than my daughter had been taught in school, but her teacher was okay with it because she showed her work and could explain the math process behind it.  My daughter used it only for the first two, and then she did the work herself and used the calculator to check her work.

This site is also good for my son’s physics class.  It doesn’t cover every sort of physics problem such as his unit dealing with gravity, but it’s a good starter.  The explanations are clear and uncluttered which really matters to him.  In a future blog, I’ll see about finding a better Physics site for high school.

What type of math does this site cover?

Algebra	Math
Chemistry	Physics
Construction	Statistics
Conversions	Geometry
Discrete Math	Plane Geometry
Finance	Solid Geometry
Fractions	Trigonometry
Games & Sports	Time
Loans	Word Problems

Many of them will not apply to you, but it’s quite comprehensive.

Also, the Math links you to all kinds of math – just about everything your child will come across during elementary, middle and high school.

Tragedy Strikes Our Neighborhood

This has been a really hard week on our neighborhood.  During the Labor Day weekend, one of the neighborhood children died.  It was a parent’s worst nightmare.  The family was enjoying a weekend at a lake when one of the children went missing.  He was found some hours later after a frantic search by family and fire rescue crews.  He had drowned.

Nathan had just begun kindergarten.  He was a charming and handsome little guy.  He was little impulsive and definitely determined to keep up with his older brother.  And his baby sister was equally determined to keep up with both of her older brothers.  They were fun to watch, and we as a community all looked out for each others’ children and enjoyed watching them grow.

Everyone is still reeling from the news, and none of us can imagine what his parents are going through.  At this time, I think they are probably still numb.  They have been fortunate to be surrounded by family and friends.  The hardest part is yet to come when the funeral is over, and they have to find some way to go on for their other two children.

Most of us don’t even have words to describe how we are feeling.  We are not the parent of this little 5 year old boy, yet his sudden death has haunted each of us deeply this week.  We haven’t spoken much with each other, but when we have, we can’t find much to say beyond that we keep thinking about Nathan and his family.  And we can’t stop thinking about him.  About them.

Yesterday, finally there were a few hours when I got so deeply involved in my work that that was all I thought about.  It gave me a little peace because I was able to let go of the sadness for just a little while.  But when I go to my driveway’s end and the bus stop and I stand next to their yard and see all the cars, the sadness just comes rushing back.  I try to block it out, but it just seeps in.

This will leave permanent scars on all of us because we all care.

I look at my children, and there is such a sense of relief that none of the close calls we had when they were little resulted in more than some scary moments and occasional scrapes.  We forget that children are just as impulsive and stubborn as adults but without the experiences and wisdom.  A tragedy can strike in the blink of an eye even with the most diligent of parents.  And one moment can mean the difference between a close call and tragedy.

I hug my children tightly and take a moment to enjoy their warmth and scent.

Katie & Justin are asking that in lieu of flowers, donations be made in Nate's name to Mechanicsville Elementary School - Playground Fund.

School Violence: What Is the Reality?

This week was the first week back to school for my children, and just one county away on the very first day, one teenager shot another in the cafeteria.  Right now, rumors are flying.  We know little about the shooter other than he’s being charged as an adult and that he is troubled with a troubled family life.  Oh yeah, we know some other troubling things because of his Facebook page.  We know little about the victim, although it seems likely he wasn’t the target, since he seems to be a gentle teen with Down syndrome.

The news shook many of us in our community, although most of us are not up in arms about it in our own children’s schools.  However, we are still concerned.  After all, it wasn’t that long ago that there was the shooting at the movie theater in Colorado on Batman’s opening night.

So what is the truth about violence in schools?

According to the CDC’s Web site on school violence, “less than 1 percent of all homicides among school-age children happen on school grounds or on the way to or from school.”  Another statistic given out by the CDC in 2007 is “during the past seven years, 116 students were killed in 109 separate incidents – an average of 16.5 student homicides per year.” 

Here are a few more facts about school violence taken directly from the CDC from a study done in 2009:

·         11.1% reported being in a physical fight on school property in the 12 months preceding the survey.

·         15.1% of male students and 6.7% of female students reported being in a physical fight on school property in the 12 months preceding the survey.

·         5.0% did not go to school on one or more days in the 30 days preceding the survey because they felt unsafe at school or on their way to or from school.

·         5.6% reported carrying a weapon (gun, knife or club) on school property on one or more days in the 30 days preceding the survey.

·         7.7% reported being threatened or injured with a weapon on school property one or more times in the 12 months preceding the survey.

            Of course, I began this blog with gun violence, and this survey covers all types of violence from shoving to more serious such as gun violence.  I was surprised to see that 7.7% said they were threatened or injured by a weapon.  There has been such a zero tolerance policy for so long in schools, I expected that number to lower.  I was also surprised at how many students admitted to carrying a weapon (5.5%).

            If you want to put these percentages into perspective, go with the estimate that we have 55.5 million students enrolled in pre-kindergarten through 12^th grade.  So of the 7.7% who were threatened or injured by a weapon in the United States translate to roughly 4,273,500 children.  Of the 5.5% who admitted to carrying a weapon that translates to 3,052,500 children.  When you take the percentages out and put it into cold hard numbers, it feels high.

            One thing that surprised me was learning that violent deaths are more likely to happen at the start or end of each semester.  It fits completely with the shooting in Perry Hall High School just a few days ago.  Still, I don’t think of the first day of school as one where violence would occur.

            Another fact by the CDC is “Nearly 50% of homicides perpetrators gave some type of warning signal, including making a threat or leaving a note, prior to the event.”  This also proved true of the shooting this week.  The teenager’s Facebook page had a comment that showed pretty clearly that the teen would do something violent that day.  Look at the CDC’s fact sheet, and you’ll see that this teen had many of the risk factors (http://www.cdc.gov/ViolencePrevention/pdf/SchoolViolence_FactSheet-a.pdf).

            Lately, most people have focused on bullying as the root cause for much of the violence in our schools.  At least that’s what school officials and the media lead us to believe.  But you look at the risks factors on the CDC’s sheet, and you get the sense that it’s more complex than that.  Bullying can be a catalyst, but there is so much more that goes into creating a child who could possibility commit violence at school.

             I don’t know exactly what I can do to keep my children safe.  Some of it has trusting the school system to monitor and evaluate daily behaviors of children and trusting people in my own community to do the same for children they know.  The other thing I tell my children regularly is to be aware of the children around them and how they treat them and just as importantly how they friends treat them. 

Once in a while I say to my son when he tells me about some taunting or crude behavior he witnessed his classmates doing to other boys that they should all be careful how they treat other kids because those kids will remember the meanness, and you never know if one day they’ll come to school and do something violent to those same kids.  I ask him how he would feel if he was treated that way.  I know it’s a harsh thing to tell my son, but that is the world we live in.

Fallout from My Reunion

I went to my high school reunion this past spring.  I have to say I actually enjoyed myself, and it turned out much better than expected.  Maybe it’s because our class was small.  But that’s not the topic I want to discuss.

The first thing I want to write about my disappointment at our class photograph.  When you purchase a photograph at an event knowing that it will be sent to you, what do you expect?  I expected a nice glossy of our class.  What did I get?  I got a darkish, orangey print out using an ink jet on matte finish paper.  Some of my classmates were actually orange in the photo.

What was that photographer thinking when she sent these out to all of us?  Did she think we actually expected our photographs to come that way?  And I know I am not the only one that felt that way.  I spoke to a couple of other classmates including one of the main organizers, and they too felt ripped off.

Morale of the story?  If you provide a product or service to customers, take time to make sure you understand what people expect and deliver it.  This photographer has deeply hurt her reputation because she had some 30 people buying photographs from her at $20 a pop.  She made well over $600, and she could take the time to color correct and even go to Target or WalMart and have the photographs professionally printed on glossy?  Even with that additional cost, she was have made a tidy profit.  And better yet, she would have people willing to recommend her instead of all these people who will steer clear of her in the future and even tell people not to use her.

The second thing I am still thinking about.  I met up with one woman that I always liked, and we even talked about our jobs.  She thought that maybe we could do business together in the future.  Nice. 

One day months later, she did call, but what she was offering wasn’t just a chat or potential business but a possibility of selling products under her.  It wasn’t bad that she offered that, but I guess my expectation at a reunion wasn’t to be sold too. 

I guess what colors my view is that I steer clear of products where you have to join in order to purchase, and while there are testimonials, there are no prices mentioned until you join and there are minimum monthly commitments for purchase.  She was selling those type of products.  I was disappointed and now I wonder was she really happy to see me or did she just see me as a potential customer rather than a former classmate.

Am I glad I went to the reunion?  You bet.  If this is all I have to complain about then I guess it was a very nice event.

Tools for Teachers (Part I)

With the Internet today, there has never been so many resources for teachers so easily available.  For my next few blogs, I am going to offer you some gems that I find useful as an adjunct college instructor, and I am sure you will find many of these useful too.

Templates

Vertex42.com (http://www.vertex42.com/ExcelTemplates/education.html) has some great templates to help teachers in Excel.  Choose templates for grade books, lesson plans, calendars, attendance forms, and behavior reward charts.  You can also share with your students a GPA calculator, weekly class schedule, periodic table, and graph papers.

PDF Converter

            If you are on a tight budget and there’s no money for Adobe Acrobat, you can still convert files to PDF online for free.  PDF Converter (http://www.freepdfconvert.com/) will allow you to upload your source file, and they will email the converted PDF to your.  You may convert Word, Excel, PowerPoint, images, Web pages, and other files to PDF.

Free Photo Editor

            Need to edit photos and images and there’s no money to buy PhotoShop or another photo editing software?  Avairy (http://www.aviary.com/) offers a free editor for use on the Web or your mobile device.  It may not have all the bells and whistles of a purchased software, but it certainly can do a lot and should satisfy most teachers.

            All of these options are powerful, useful and most importantly free.  Be sure to check them out and spread the word to your fellow teachers!

Classroom Activity – Creating Titles that Hook

Ever heard that you never get a second chance to make a first impression?  That’s true when you write.  Often, students overlook titles for their essays.  During the semester, I spend a class going over titles and having fun with them to show students ways to be creative and hook the reader.

One of the activities I begin with is sharing headlines I created for fairy tales and nursery rhymes.  One of the ones I use is “Rodent Terrified by Time Piece.”  At first students scratch their heads and try to think back to the nursery rhymes they remember.  Then if I’m lucky, one student will guess “Hickory Dickory Dock.”  It is a little difficult with the current generation because many of them were never read nursery rhymes, but they soon get into the activity and enjoy trying to figure out each story.  Another one I use is “Downtrodden Woman Escapes for the Evening:  Saved by Authorities.”  That’s “Cinderella.”

We talk some about the titles I offer because they are written more in the newspaper genre than for essays or stories.  We then talk about how even though they are writing academic essays, they should still try to make the title hook the reader and the introduction interesting to the reader.

Then I flip the tables on them and give them five more fairy tales and ask them to write their own titles to hook the reader.  When they are finished, I look for volunteers to share.  This is one time when students are more eager to share, and we get some good laughs from what they have written.  With this portion of the activity, I offer a site with brief summaries of the fairy tales because more and more often fewer students are familiar with all of those tales.  And even if they are familiar, it is sometimes nice to review.  I found when I developed this activity, I ended up rereading of the stories and seeing details I had forgotten or missed.

I think the most startling thing they realize from this exercise is that they should consider the audience they are writing for even if it’s just the teacher and try to make their writing interesting.