Holiday Traditions

I already posted here about my family's advent tradition, but my family has another special tradition I want to share. Each year since we were born, my mother has gotten both my brother and me a dated Hallmark ornament. When we got old enough, we were allowed to choose which one we wanted. It is so fun to look back and see my entire collection and think about why I chose each one.

This year, I chose this one because I think it is reflective of how I am now teaching at an international school.

We did not put up a tree this year because we are leaving the week before Christmas to go back to the states, but last year was the first year that my mom handed all of my 26 years of ornaments over to me so that I could put them on my own tree instead of having them on the tree at her house. It was so fun looking back on all of the ornaments I chose and putting them in order from 1982 to 2008.

I love this tradition and hope to carry it on when I have kids of my own.

What do you celebrate this time of year?

What is your favorite holiday tradition?

Sushi by Sneaker Teacher

One of my co-workers, who is from Japan, taught me how to make homemade sushi the other day at lunch time. I decided to make a sushi feast for dinner to surprise my husband since he returned from a business trip tonight. It's actually not that hard, but boy did it taste good!

Uptight or Inappropriate?

Last night I attended the 3rd/4th grade disco at my school. While there was a little bit of dancing, like the choreographed routine to Thriller the kids apparently learned in their sports class, most of the night consisted of about 60 kids running around, grabbing handfulls of snacks off the food table, then proceeding to run around some more.

Kids were hyper, sweaty, and having a blast.

The music, all of which was American pop music, was blasting. I had a hard time trying not to dance as I worked the food table, refilling bowls of chips and popcorn, but I didn't want to look like too much of a dork!

As I was listening to the music, I was a little surprised at some of the songs that were played. I don't know if I am being too conservative in my thinking, but I just didn't think a few were appropriate choices for a disco catering to 3rd and 4th graders.

For example:

Katy Perry's Hot and Cold: you change your mind like a girl changes clothes. You PMS like a bitch, I should know....

Also, Flo Rida's Right Round... from the top of the pole I watch her go down, she got me throwin' my money around...

I don't know. I am certain that the kids were not intently listening to the lyrics. They probably didn't hear the swears or understand the messages in the songs, but I was still surprised they were played. It reminds me of one of my first grade students last year singing I kissed a girl and I liked it in the lunch line. They may even sing along and still not know what they are singing about, but there are a lot of cool songs out there that don't have mature lyrics.

What do you think? Inappropriate to play songs like that or all in good fun??

Oregon Department of Education plays the Grinch!

I read this morning in this article, that the Oregon Department of Education cut title III funding for Portland Public Schools because of a lack of compliance with regulations and previous warnings about the nature of instruction for ELL's within the district.

Although I did not work for this particular district, this really hits home for me because my district was also visited by ODE which infused stress in many teachers due to the fear that something like this would happen.

As I read through the comments following this article, I became both fascinated and shocked at the attitudes of some people regarding the education and instruction of English for students whose native language is not English. People expressed that bilingual education should be cut, students should only speak English at school and at home, that students should learn that if they want to survive in OUR country, they need to learn to speak English. It was obvious to me that many of these comments came from individuals who are not educators and are also not familiar with research on language acquisition or multicultural education. For that matter, they may not even be aware that many of the original inhabitants of our country were not English speakers. ::gasp!::

Check out some of these comments that made me cringe just a bit:

I'll bet that if multilingual information was eliminated, they would all learn English. My family did back in the 1920s. It would also help if the people in school learning English were using English in the home.

When are people going to get it? Teachers don't care if they learn, to them it's all about the paycheck and their union. No work, more pay??

Of all the worthless programs being forced on the taxpayers to cover, ESL is the one that needs to go. Many of us have insisted for some time that it is a total waste of time and money as this article reinforces. It should not be the public schools responsibility to teach english to a population that has become nothing more than a plague on this country. Laws need to be passed to ensure that English is the offical language.

We as a country must stop welcoming these foreign invaders with open arms, pushing one for English is an insult as is my fifth graders school news letter being printed in both English and Spanish, enough. This is America lets keep it that way.

We have EVERY right to want to maintain our heritage and if foreigners' want to do the same they are more than welcome to in THEIR OWN COUNTRY.

Then there were some comments that I was happy to see:

Immersed? So a beginner, new to the country, speaks no English at all, comes to the USA as a middle or high school student, should be thrown into classes like English Lit, political science, Biology, etc? How much do you think the average student (or, you for that matter) would get from this sort of immersion? How much do you know about the theories of language acquisition? Perhaps you'd like to do a bit of research? Try this site. http://www.sdkrashen.com/index.php?cat=0

I am reading the comments to Betsy Hammond's article with disgust and some degree of rage. Most of you are obviously the ancestors of the folks who came here originally and destroyed the people and the cultures of the original occupants of this piece of geography we call America. Xenophobia is the fear of strangers and your fear is manifest in your snide and sarcastic references to bilingual signs and messages. I sincerely despair that we have not as a nation embraced the value of multiculturalism and the value of what it means to communicate in a language other then our own. Children from pre-school on should all be taught in multiple languages and share in the many cultures that have created this nation. The only illegal immigrant in this country are the ancestors of the people that stole the land from native populations. Shame on all of you for being narrow and mean spirited. You are talking about children who came here with their parents, not on their own and as someone who works in the school as I see those same children struggling as well as embracing education to better their lives. They work twice as hard as our citizen born and behave better too. You mean folks do not know what you are talking about.

Obviously this issue, like many others, is politically charged and elicits strong opinions from different people that can be polar opposites. I think you can tell where I stand however, regardless of what side I agree with, I truly do not see how ODE ripping funds away from PPS is a viable solution. How can they be expected to improve if funding is lost? I understand that there were recommendations made regarding what types of programs/instruction should be taking place for ELL's and that they improved for a bit, but then started to slide again, but I can't help but think that more education, support, or direction would be better than removing funding.

Thoughts??

seriously??

During last period today, I worked with my high school friend. Remember Henry? My friend who has been rocking it out in his Algebra class? This time, he was working on some history homework. He was completing a timeline about the Civil War.

So Henry takes out this beat up looking photocopied packet that he was supposed to get his information from.

Not a textbook with colored pictures.

Black and white.

Photocopies.

At a school where tuition is at least 10,000 Euros a year.

I opened up this little bundle of historical information and was appalled.

Appalled!

The packet was bound together and the words were so close to the margin that they disappeared into the binding so that the first one or two words on the left margin were obliterated. Try to read something with every 8th word missing....it gets a little tricky...

The pictures were black. This was not a case of not being the greatest quality but still doable...these pictures were b-l-a-c-k black. I could barely make out anything! Below the picture, the text said something to the effect of.... "as you can see in the picture..."

Wait! How on earth can a student draw conclusions from a picture that he can't see?!?!

On certain pages, there was a black stripe going down the middle of the two pages from the crease in the book that was being copied. Again, many words were blacked out making it quite difficult to gain meaning from this text.

When the student had to look up a specific amendment, I realized there was no table of contents and no glossary of terms.

On many pages, the font was very tiny and so dense, I would be entirely overwhelmed if I were a high schooler trying to make sense of it.

Not to mention a high schooler who has a learning disability trying to make sense of it.

Or a high school student trying to learn English trying to make sense of it.

Tiny print. Missing words. Black pictures.

Seriously?

Why aren't there copies of the textbook for each student? Why are they given photo copies instead? I can understand the value in being able to make notes or highlight important information, but at the cost of having all the information there? I think not.

I can't help but feel like what I saw was completely 100% unacceptable.

How does a teacher provide that and feel it is sufficient for learning?

Is it just me or are you sharing my thoughts....

Seriously???

Getting in on the SITS action

and a Merry SITSmas too!

I kept seeing references to SITS on different blogs, so today I decided to see what it's all about. When it comes to blogging, I am definitely a joiner, so I thought I would join in on the SITS fun. I absolutely love connecting with new people through blogging, especially teachers, so this seems like another great chance to meet some new bloggy friends.

If you are visiting for the first time, here is a brief run down. I am a teacher and my husband and I recently moved to Germany. I am currently teaching at an international school where I work as a K-12 Suport Services (special education) teacher and I am also working on a doctorate in educational leadership. I love to talk shop with other teachers, but I also like to blog about fitness, Germany, baking, and my obsession with books. I hope you will follow along! Leave me a comment and I will be sure to check out your blog as well in the SITS fashion.