I think

As I merge this site with my new Physics By Shelton site, its clear that I'm gonna have to change *cough* edit some of the language from previous posts. Oops! Well, I am a villian!

Did you get what you wanted? Do you know what you want? What do you want? What do you have? What do you take? What do you give? Who are you? Where have you been? Why do you leave? Why do you stay? Where do you live? What do you believe? Are you sure you believe? Is it all worth it? What is it worth? Did you get what you came for? Did you take what was offered? Was it worth the trouble? What is coming next? Are you prepared for the future? Are you afraid of the future? What do you fear? Does fear make you strong? Are you strong? Are you sure of yourself? Do you know yourself? Why are you so sure? Are you the center? Are you the beginning? Is this the end? Is this the beginning? What has been started? When does it end? Why does it continue? What makes it work? Will it ever change? Do we need change? Do we fear change? What is change? Are you going to change? Will you lead change? Are you a follower? Will you be lead? Is the next stage better than this? How do you know? Do you have faith? Do you need faith? Do you need anything? Why do you need? Will your needs be met? Can you do it yourself? Are you alone? Are you lonely? Are you accompanied? What company do you keep? Do you accept the challenge? Do you bend in the face of adversity? What adversity do you know? Will you be pushed along? Do you accept the status quo? Do you get anything out of life? Do you put anything into life? Do you react? Do you pro-act? Do you initiate? Do you respond? Are you part of nature? Are you a product of your environment? Will you hide behind your surroundings? Are others to blame? Do you hold yourself responsible? Do you take control? What is out there? What direction will it be? Are you willing to accept mediocrity? Do you accept less than your best? Will you ever settle? Do you concede? Why are you here? How do you feel? What is left? Are you one of a kind? Do you conform? Did you get what you expected? What do you expect? What’s it all about? e.s.

Give me a chance and I will fix all of the problems with the education system. Of course, to do that, you are going to have to make two important concessions, first not everyone can or wants to learn. Second, its ok to give up on a student. 

These aren't popular notions, and more importantly they are not notions that I would normally suggest teachers go out and support. But I didn't say what was best for students, I simply said we could fix the education system if we believed these ideas. This way, we would squander resources on students who don't want to learn. We would stop holding back our high achievers so that the middle and lower kids can catch up. Most importantly, we would stop treating our middle students as fodder for lower achieving students to prey upon. 

I do want to come back to this later, but what I really wanted to discuss today was this idea that every student can learn. Its just not true. Every child's brain can incorporate new ideas and therefore can technically learn. But to say that every student can learn is wrong. In order to learn that has to be a vested interest, desire, or need. It shouldn't be up to the teacher to define that need, create that desire, or identify that interest. 

I teach very bright children, but they don't all learn. They seem to float by and when they suddenly don't understand something, its as if they haven't been present for weeks. They all of a sudden look around and realize that the little things they were missing all along weren't little and they now can't cope with their new reality. 

Let me give you an example. Try to teach a kid to make Macaroni and Cheese. 

You can't do it all at once, you first have to break this up into parts. So we will start with teaching them how to measure. And not just how to measure one thing but how to measure everything. Volume, length, mass, time, etc... 

Then once everyone in the room can measure, we will teach them the different types of pots, the difference between cutlery and cooking utensils. Maybe we will even show them what a stove is and how to turn one on.

Then comes the time when the basics of cooking can be taught. Safety in the kitchen (hot things can hurt you, sharp things can cut you, etc..). After sending kids away who are not allowed to hear about such things (it is against their religion) or have caught up all the kids who were absent during the measuring or pot lesson; we then show them how to turn on the stove, stirr things and drain things. 

Once everyone has that basics of the kitchen down, we then give them pictographs (because they all can't read the same language at the same level) of what they have to do to make macaroni and cheese. We will go over that they will have to place a specific amount of water in the bowl. Bring it to a boil, and then place the raw noodles in the pot. Stir the noodles for a specific length of time until they are cooked. Drain the noodles. Measure out the butter and milk. Tear the pouch of cheese and mix it in the original pot with the butter and milk and then add the drained noodles. 

After you have gone over these instructions you may believe it is time to get some yummy mac and cheese. But here is where you are mistaken. Their hands will begin to shoot up, how much water do you measure? What do you use to measure the water? How do you measure the amount of milk? How do I know when the noodles are done? Where do I turn on the stove? Which pot do I use for the water? Where do we keep the milk? Do I have to stir the butter and milk? What do I do if I pour the cheese powder in with the water while its boiling, do I have to start over? 

This may seem silly. In fact you may say, they just learned that stuff, they wouldn't ask questions like that, they would ask more important or more relavent questions. Or maybe they are just screwing around. Once you have been in the classroom for a while you will come to realize, that although some do ask more relevant questions, like how can I make better mac and cheese, can I substitute a higher grade cheese, can I use lower fat components for a healthier diet etc.. Most of the students honestly don't know how to do the things they are asking about. And although they may have passed their measuring test, or their where crap is in the kitchen test, they cannot use any of that information to help them mac the damn mac and cheese. 

Today, at the end of 10 weeks of instruction which started with how to solve triangles using trig and ended with analyzing forces acting on objects in motion. The number one question was why did I use sine and not cosine. Something that was covered that first day. Worse yet the reason I start with trig is that the kids don't know it. Yet, knowing trig is a prerequisite to being in my class. It is something that I am supposed to count on the kids knowing. So not only did they have it once, it is being rethought by me before we start the lessons so that it will be fresh. Yet still, when all is said and done, they can't bring it to use. 

What's worse, as a teacher when they ask about it I can't help but say, we have already covered that. You need to keep up. Its like when they ask, where are the pots, sorry, you can't make any mac and cheese because I covered pot and cutlery locations in a previous lesson.

I like to crack jokes in class. I figure that life is too short to take it too seriously, so I figure the more outrageous the better. I know that I push the boundaries from time to time, but I figure that as long as we have a good laugh we won't get too absorbed with the day to day grind of physics. Let's face it, you the students aren't going to appreciate the beauty of the structure of matter the same way that I do, but at least we can laugh about each other a bit. 

So, this week when we had our ethics training, I saw ample opportunity to go right for the jokes. The problem is that anyone who can see through the sarcasm will see that the razor sharp wit that I use to make the jokes funny also is drawing blood. The ethics training demonstrates that the people who actually set the tone of the year are out of touch. They are so concerned with what will make news that they can't see that they are over looking the real ethics violations. The ethics training addressed teachers having sex with students, or toeing the line between professional and personal relationships with students. How many teachers does this actually affect? less than 1% How about the dozens of teachers who steal  from other teachers? Teachers that use their students to make themselves a quick buck? Teachers who manipulate test scores to make themselves look better? This is ethics too, but you won't see that make headlines. 

It's so pathetic, but the principal isn't up there bringing this up; even though every teacher in the audience knows not only what is going on but who is wrong. However don't back teachers into a corner. When it comes to money, they are worse than rabid wolverines. But don't let them text or log on to facebook and insinuate that they have a life outside of the FCAT. How fucking (oops) amoral. 

OK, so here are the facts.

I knew I was having a bad day. I knew that I was just an outburst away from drawing blood and tears from the first student who really deserved it. So I made sure that all the kids knew it ahead of time because I appreciate knowing when people are in a bad mood. I figure if students would walk in and say, "Yo Shelton, my boyfriend is a prick, so I am going to sit in the back of the room and shoot daggers at you while you try and teach." I could at least steer clear of them when necessary. But students don't do that, actually I don't think anyone does. They expect you to just figure it out and fix it on your own without any warning. And if you can't or worse if you don't notice, THEY WILL SQUASH YOU LIKE A BUG!!!!

On the other hand, why do I bother. When you find out that after you have taught for 14 years and you are merely a sub par teacher what do you do? I want to move forward, but actually since there is no air conditioning I just can't put together a coherent thought.  So tomorrow, I will be in shorts, they will be working on a lab and ultimately I don't really care what they learn. Either way its not going to be on the test and I am going to get paid anyway. 

It's just the principle of the thing. How can I simply walk forward knowing that regardless of what I do, I will never be classified as more than a below average teacher. It just is crazy for a guy like me.

"Cover Your Damn Belly Buttons"

As a teacher there are so many things I thought I would say in class. In fact as I went through all the trainings, and sat through all the classes, and of course, taught all the practice classes, I envisioned that there would be all of these situations in my class never once did I think that today I would have to say "STOP PLAYING WITH YOUR BELLY-BUTTONS AND GET BACK TO THE LAB!" Stupid kids.

You know, getting piercings is fun and all but having to show each other how much crust has built up over the "totally kick ass belly button ring" is just a little bit screwy, not to mention watching them sit there and pick at it. So, as I said before, "STOP PLAYING WITH YOUR BELLY BUTTON RING AND GET BACK TO DOING YOUR DAMN LAB!"

I'm gonna be totally screwed when they get their tongue pierced next week.

Sometimes no matter how much you want it to, you just can't give a bad
lecture wings. I thought I had a pretty good lecture ready to go.
Maybe it was having just gotten off of a plane, maybe the kids were
just not into it or tired, or maybe the lecture was just bad. Whatever
it was, I tried it over and over again for nearly 7 hours and by the
end, I just wanted to crawl away. I was hoping for some small
validation that I was reaching them.

Besides the lecture had all the good stuff in it. Cell phones, death,
smoking, all sorts of things kids normally can't wait to talk about.
But then I got stuff like, "I believe that people can heal themselves.
That just by watching happy TV shows they can make their cancer go
away."

WHAT?! How do people like that get promoted from year to year. Trying
to teach a science class and you get into a metaphysics discussion.
The worst thing is that kind of belief is dangerous. The idea that you
can make something happen if you want it to happen can begin to
permeate people. It may lend hope to dispair, but it also creates a
save me complex and false hope and sanctity. These might be ok notions
for an 18 year old, but I don't want my daughter to believe them and I
certainly don't want to get caught up in this discussion in front of
my students. I'm afraid that with a person like that, you cannot use
reason or logic lead you to a solution.

My biggest concern is when that idea spreads. I can convince most
people of the validity and importance of research and science, but
that person doesn't want to believe in science. They want magic.