Here are my musings that I add to from time to time for my class. I will be editing some of these and then posting them here.
I have done a lot of writing, in theory. What? Well now that I am looking at unemployment after June,
I wake up in the middle of the night with thoughts of what’s next, what should I do? Should I move on
and embrace my social anxiety which is at the crux, in my opinion, of why I can’t seem to “really”
engage students? Or should I draw a line and stay the course of looking for a traditional position
and hope that the next district is more understanding of my anxiety?
So what does one do when told they are shitty they are a teacher, but have the content down cold?
Sort of a smack on the back of the head and a hand shake in one. I have spent a lot of time and money
getting to know my content, ok, not all the content. Economics does not interest me in the least, even
though I am learning as I am teaching it, oh wait, I don’t know how to teach and engage my students.
So now for the next 8 weeks I will be delivering content sort of like that teacher in
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, “Anyone, Anyone?”
I don’t have the energy for a Master’s Degree, I did try and I did learn lots, but my formatting sucked
and that just drained the fun out of the classes I was taking. I am thinking if I had worked on some
aspect of Education, like curriculum, that I might have made it through. But I chose American History
and formatting is Queen there. I do get it, citation of sources when you are writing about History is
important. Just look at what we have been living through the last four years. Oh and total lack of
understanding of Geography and that territories like Guam are a part of the United States, not foreign
countries. Oh that Majorie Taylor Greene makes me want to barf every time
I see her or hear her words in print.
Write about what you know, what you are passionate about.
I am sort of sick of hearing the word passion attached to careers or jobs.
But I understand that writing about something you could care less about,
like Economics Education, could be a trial and tribulation and
if I had been given the grace of a contract renewal I may have
dug into Economics and how it is taught today with enthusiasm.
Because how it is being taught and how those teachers who love Economics
talk about it being so important is well, IMHO, wearing blinders on.
Do students really need to know what the four factors of production are?
The Three Basic Economic Questions?
What a Circular Flow Model is and how different it looks depending on
what economy you are looking at is?
Does knowing these concepts help students understand the world?
Maybe, it does help me as I am looking at scholarly articles about history.
What do students need to know? My two co teachers think stocks are an important aspect
of Financial Literacy, I don’t. I feel that Financial Literacy is the key to more success than
you would have without it. Sure stocks can be a part of that, but shouldn’t you be able to
balance a budget first? Shouldn’t you feed and clothe yourself and your family first?
Buying and selling stocks comes after all of that, after you have the leftover funds to experiment
with stocks. Stocks should not go at the top of your budget, meaning you shouldn’t say,
“OK I will put $100 towards stocks this month. If I have to short my rent that’s ok,
I’ll catch up next month.” Not that my co teachers say that is an option,
but when they assign students to track and buy stocks for pretend it makes some
students feel that buying stocks is an important budgetary item.
As I sit here, monitoring a summative assessment, a student asks,
“when dose spring brake start?” This is a student who comes occasionally and
then comes to the unit assessment unprepared and wants to know when “spring brake,” is.
Because that is at the top of his educational budget.
All the students know they can’t get any lower than 50% on summative assessments,
even if they don’t even try to take the assessment. I’m not sure what we are teaching students?
I know that giving them this kind of grace is not going to help them in the future.
Gov. DeSantis of Florida is saying Florida’s new Civics mandate will not include
Critical Racial Theory or teaching students to hate America. I am glad I don’t live in Florida
and I am sad for those Civics teachers who are now constrained from giving their students all
the tools to become and practice being and educated citizen. Florida did give felons the
right to vote and is looking at giving them all of their civil rights back. Though I am wondering
if they think Florida prisons are populated by White Supremacists so giving their voting and
civil rights back will give racism a boost in Florida?
Unpacking racism and intolerance in my community is a difficult proposition.
On the one hand I receive an email about student saying she is now identifying as transgender
and her name is now “Marcia” and she wants us to use the pronouns they/their and she/her.
On the other hand she must use the nongendered bathrooms, which means the staff bathrooms. I am happy “Marcia” feels safe enough to tell us this and I am even more happy that the
high school has quickly changed her name from Mike to Marcia in PowerSchool which changes
it in Classroom and Google Meets. We are recently, Tuesday, back full time in person and
I had the students update their introductory What’s My Name slide that I assigned the first week
of the semester. Marcia was brave enough to add this to her slide,
Many people have complimented my outfit when I dressed androgynously
and I have been sure to thank themShe also defined androgynous in class. Very brave of her.
I am sad that a student I had last semester was not as confident about revealing themselves
to their family or the school, other than specific teachers they trusted to know and remain silent.
I have just learned that this student has decided to go back her “given” name
and now has gone back to identifying as female.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis(R) on Wednesday unveiled his proposal for a civics education curriculum in the state,
emphasizing it will “expressly exclude” critical race theory.
“A high-quality education begins with a high-quality curriculum, which is why we’re going
to be laser-focused on developing the best possible civics instruction standards,”
DeSantis said at a press conference.
“Florida civics curriculum will incorporate foundational concepts with the best materials,
and it will expressly exclude unsanctioned narratives like critical race theory and other
unsubstantiated theories,” he added.
DeSantis said there is “no room in our classrooms for things like critical race theory,”
adding that “teaching kids to hate their country and to hate each other is not worth
one red cent of taxpayer money.”
He said the state will instead invest in “actual, solid, true curriculum” and will be a
“leader in the development and implementation of a world-class civics education.”
“Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) on Wednesday unveiled his proposal for a civics education
curriculum in the state, emphasizing it will “expressly exclude” critical race theory.”
3/16
Back in person for four days and I am not exhausted as the students interestingly enough.
I gave no new assignments this week and I gave students time in class to catch up,
something I had hoped would happen the week before spring break. But no, not only are
some not utilizing the time wisely, as I expected, they are acting like middle schoolers,
yes, the guys, the young ladies are doing fine and just trying to get through the days and
weeks and graduate.
3rd period, what am I going to do with you? 35 of you so once I move the problem children
around I will also have to move those students are doing their best. Which really annoys.
35, I would never have had 35 if we were in person from the beginning of the school year,
I have 36 desks so to move without disruption to other is impossible. 3 ft apart, that’s
3ft from the desk center to desk center. Make me long for virtual learning, I could just kick
them out of the Meet as soon as the disruptions started. Argh.
Today
Such a beautiful day. Maybe once my granddog arrives so his dads can take the weekend
and celebrate the 3rd anniversary of one his dad’s successful heart surgery we will go for
a drive. Anubis, one of the most loving dogs that is not mine that I have met. He is a trained support dog, well sort of almost fully trained. He is six, I think, he has a bit of stranger
aggression issue, hence my statement that he is “almost fully trained.” I wish I had the
money to adopt and have someone train a support dog for me. Not sure that anxiety is
support dog worthy.
Carving out time for writing is still difficult for me.
There is always something “more important” to do than waste my time writing.
Yes, Family most importantly, my mother specifically I have let hold me back.
My mother died in 1995 and she still influences me. I have never felt the need to impress
her, just always felt that I was a disappointment to her. She was not a touchy feely woman,
though after she died and my father gave me photograph albums I found out that she was
bit of a social buttlerfly, not flitting about, but involved in the doings of Salem and with the
movers and shakers of my hometown.
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