Circle the wagons, ma...

"Circle the wagons, Ma! I think I see a band of consultants ridin' down on us!"



Well, the inspectors are here with that "kicking ass and taking names" look on their faces. They're ducking into and out of classrooms so fast that I think I'm watching a Marx Bros. movie. All we teachers can do is sit in our Potemkin Village classrooms hoping that they don't look behind the newly decorated bulletin boards and discover the sham that we teachers "must be" (because why would they be here if we weren't?). I feel like a subjugated ward of the state.

However, they too are guilty of a sham. How can they possibly know what is the one (or two) right teaching steps that we should take to immediately turn our high school around - "Show more student work." ..."Use fewer 'teacher-directed' lessons in your class." Yeah, right!

I think it's their sanctimonious certitude that bothers me the most. If they knew the answers - I mean REALLY knew the answers- the districts in which the state took control would be "flying high" in academic achievement. But those districts are still mired in the 10 percentile swamps of the state tests.

I could understand suggestions from the inspectors, but it seems that they spell suggestions d-i-r-e-c-t-i-v-e-s. But they, like us, know that failing districts are like "unhappy families"- each is failing in its own way, and usually for myriad reasons.

Moreover, it's presumptuous when anyone says that we know how to "fix" broken schools. If that were true, then there wouldn't be so many broken schools still out there.

Looking back at this blog, I realize that it is so very bitter in tone, but I'm getting very tired of all these "experts" who are so sure that their "simplistic" remedies will effortlessly solve our complex problems. I believe that failing schools can be fixed, but it will take hard work, time, and money. Remedies that most people don't want to hear or to acknowledge.

Surrender or Die!

Well, after seven years of declining state test scores, we are on the verge of being declared a failing school. The state dept. of education has sent in observers to evaluate the quality of the entire school - administrators, teachers, students, physical plant, community, etc. However, I have a feeling that only the administrators (central and of our school) and the teachers will be held accountable. All others will be granted dispensation. I'm not saying that staff is not responsible for some of the lack of progress, but this "play" has many actors and, to paraphrase the Prince in Romeo and Juliet, "... all should be Punished"*


*Pronounced - Punis-'shed- because that way it sounds more Shakespearean!

Where's the rest of me?

I'm dying the "Death of a Thousand Acronyms". Everywhere and everyday I am constantly reminded of my and my students' accountability to the PSAT, and/or SAT and/or the ACT, and the HSPT (High School Proficiency Test), or, if they don't pass it the SRA's (now renamed the AHRA's), and/or the NEAP (National Educational Assessment Program), or the CAPA ( I forget - but some monitoring program), and/or the HSTW (High Schools That Work), and the GPA (Grade Point Average), or the NMSQT (National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test), or the ASVAB (Armed Forces Vocational Aptitude Battery), the IQ test, not to mention the CAT's or the ERB's, and many, many more... . ARRRGHHHHHHHHH

Two things are evident to me with all these acronyms:

1. With all this Jargon (some might say Argot) somebody's hiding something...

2. With all these extra programs it's evident that public schools aren't seen as bastions of learning, but as reservoirs of "mineable" data.

and, as a corollary to #'s 1 & 2, there's a lot of money to be made serving up "Alphabet Soup"...

"Three card Monte"

It seems to me that one of the hallmarks of troubled schools is the inability to allocate resources efficiently and effectively. Perhaps this is the effect of ineffective or non-existent planning or in lack of continuity. In any case, failing or troubled schools always seem to engage in practices which are at cross purposes to practices which would actually allieviate or solve problems. One might say that they are, "Robbing Peter to pay Paul," but it's actually worse than that. They are "Robbing Simon to pay Peter to get better credit from Paul." Everything is reactive - very little is pro-active.

Mea culpa

Well, what I was afraid would happen - happened. I feared that as the school year progressed I would become too tired or too preoccupied to write a continuous blog. This has always been one of my shortcomings when I've tried to keep a journal (I have numerous journals - started with a New Year's resolution - all petered out by mid-January). So it seems to have happened again. However, I will try once again to revive my creative juices (Oh boy, that sounds like fun!) and continue to write more often - at least something.

One other thing, when I started this blog I envisioned it to be sort of a dialogue between me and whomever might want to engage in it. However, it seems that the dialogue is not taking place. I have some reason to believe that there is something wrong with the comment box. So, if you want to engage in dialogue and can't seem to post a comment you can reach me at russ.zolotoi@gmail.com.

Well, what do you know????

I'm back... with the end of the story... finally.

So, we started to discuss "naughty" words (using euphemisms, of course)...and they pretended to be "shocked" that I knew those words, and I, in return, pretended to be shocked that they knew those words. At last, one female student asked me if the "B" word was one of those "naughty" words. I replied that it depended on the context. If someone were calling someone else a "B" then, indeed, it an was inappropriate metaphor. However, if I were talking to someone whose profession was raising dogs then the word Bitch was appropriate and correct. Immediately, the classroom went silent with shock (He said, "BITCH").
Then, they rebounded and shouted their incredulity that I would ever consider such a
word "correct."

One girl asked, "Mr. Zolotoi, what would you say if I said 'That bitch peed on my floor?' "

"Well...," I answered, "...depending upon the context... I would tell you either your dog needs more training,...or ... you need better behaved friends!" ...and we all laughed.

As we were laughing, I happened to look up on the board and I saw the Fun With Words phrase on the board and suddenly I realized that, yes, indeed, we were having fun FUN WITH WORDS!

I simulated shock, and said "Oh, my goodness!"

"What? What?" they all wanted to know.

So I shared my revelation that today really was FWW - day and that's what we were doing... having Fun With Words. There was an immediate sharp intake of breath as students do when they learn a "truth" and then, just as quickly, there was the loud clamor as students do when they feel they have been "tricked" into learning.

But I hadn't tricked them, ...couldn't have... I hadn't even planned the course of events ...but I and the class both learned something.

They learned that language can be enjoyable.

I learned that sometimes the "Teachable moment" works both ways.

F.W.W. - Day (continued)

So, as I was saying... on this Friday (first day of vocabulary study) I thought that I would call it FWW-Day instead of Friday. FWW would stand for Fun With Words (pronounced FWA-day)... and I meant it both as sarcasm and as a bit of a hint.

So, on the board, under Friday I wrote FWW-day and in my best Buffalo Bob imitation I said "Hey Kids, what day is it?" Some mumbled softly "Friday", but most just looked on with puzzled indifference.

Then, I answered with as much feigned enthusiasm as I could muster "It's not Friday but FWA -day!"

By then, even the sleepers were awake and almost all of the students shouted, "What's FWW-day?". And I answered in my best carnival barker's voice, "FUN WITH WORDS - day".

Immediately the groans and hoots of derision started. The waves of disgust was so palpable that I thought I saw Gidget surfing one of them. But I laughed as if I mis-heard them and acted as if they were shouting to convey their enthusiasm for word study.

As I was writing the word elements of the new vocabulary word NONCHALANCE, a student raised his hand and asked if there was a word for "not caring" was there actually a word CHALANCE meaning caring. Well, I wasn't sure, and I told them that. But I also hazarded a guess that perhaps, at one time, there had been a word like that and that it was now obsolete or archaic. I reminded the students that language and words are dynamic entities whose usage lives or dies, waxes or wanes, or changes through passages of time and place. The students seemed satisfied with that answer.

And then, another student asked me for an example of words that change and I mentioned that in Shakespeare's time the word "NICE" was considered an insult and a naughty word.

And that of course prompted the question the question/response, "What exactly were naughty words?" Now of course, the classroom was riveted on every word.