He's At It Again

I mentioned this guy a couple of years ago and lo and behold he's up to his usual shenanigans again.  What a creep.

If you live in Gwinnett County, GA, feel free to share this info with your friends.

MICHAEL ALLEN BUCKNER

5014 SWINDON CRT

LILBURN GA 30047

(770) 923-9970

VIOLATION OF PROBATION

THEFT BY DECEPTION

Just got this email from another teacher:

"This morning, a man (caucasion, blonde, 40ish, well dressed) knocked on our door at 7:15 AM.  I live off Garner Rd , Mt Park area of Lilburn.  His story was that his son is sick with asthma and he needed money to buy his medicine because he left his wallet at church yesterday.  I did not give him money, and he drove off very quickly when my husband pulled up in our driveway after taking our son to school.  After I told my husband the story, he drove off looking for him and found him in the neighborhood behind us, and he was approaching someone else's door.  My husband pulled in behind him  and wrote his tag number down.  The man rushed toward my husband very nervously asking what he was doing, and my husband let him know that he would be calling the police and reporting his suspicious behavior.  He told my husband he was just looking for gas money and he rushed off in his car.

 

My husband did call the police.  He was driving a late model (less than 5 years old) dark blue, Jeep Cherokee 4x4 with a dealer tag.  

 

This man looks very familiar.  I feel certain he is the same man that was referenced in an email a couple of years ago that had been arrested for this type behavior on a number of occasions, usually approaching young children and moms out in their yards in the afternoon.  I don’t mind giving folks money who really need it, but I remember stories about this guy getting very agitated and threatening when people would not give him money.  That is what concerns me most about this particular guy."

Yes, he was arrested in 2008 and lives right around the corner from me. He uses that same story every time.  Think I'll post his picture around the park nearby and share his info. with friends.  Creep.

Library Hoarding

I stole this post idea from Doug Johnson.

I went off on this in a comment on his blog, but I have a couple more minutes of lunchtime to rant.

So I just found a box (yes and entire box) of USB connected DISK DRIVES in one of the library's back rooms.  That's bad enough, but the clerk tells me some were in use as recently as LAST YEAR.

Not anymore they're not.

Some other things I've tossed, surplussed, or otherwise made disappear:

An entire box of cables!  Some of them were still in their original packaging, that don't go to any equipment we have.

Extra overhead projectors.  We have a bunch of document cameras, so some teachers didn't want them anymore.  Can't blame them.

Broken CD players that cost more to fix than replace.

Old promotional bookmarks that have coupons that expired a long time ago.

Magazines going back to before my daughter was born.

And speaking of magazines, a whole set of brittle National Geographics.  No one has even asked about them.  If they do, you can get all of them ever made on CDs for like fifty bucks.

I still have to deal with some digital cameras that are so old, they probably take worse pictures than your phone's camera.  I think I may have even seen some Polaroids back there.  Sheesh!

And I have a little box full of shiny brass keys!  Unlabeled.  Anyone want to take bets on what they're for?

"Must be a good book"

I'm just not fond of that phrase.  Talk about a non-sequitur.

This past school year I had afternoon bus dismissal duty.  I had to stand at the intersection of school hallways and make sure there was some semblance of order as the kids rushed to get to their bus.

Since our elementary school has over 1400 students and since the land is cheaper for building schools out in the middle of nowhere, we're talking more than 30 busses.  So there would be waves of chattering kids punctuated by long lulls during which the next phalanx of busses motored into position.

So I usually brought a book for theses down times.  Nearly every adult who happened by at one of these times would invariably say, "Must be a good book."

What does that even mean?

How the heck do I know if it's good if I just started reading it?  How do they know it's good no matter where I am in it?  But saying it must be good just because I'm standing there reading it seems ridiculous.

I admit: most of the books I read are good because I only pick books to read that I've heard good things about and am reasonably sure I'll like.  But every so often I'm wrong.  Not often, but it happens.  And sometimes I have to read something for my book club I wouldn't have otherwise chosen and don't necessarily like but feel compelled to read for the conversation we'll have.  Sometimes I read kids books out of some obligation or other that I don't always enjoy.

I mean, just because someone is reading, why does it necessarily follow it's a good book?  I could be reading pap like this or like this for all they know.

These people might have a point if I was reacting to the book in some dramatic way as they walked by.  Gasping or laughing or weeping openly.  It happens.  But not usually in the hallway between bus calls for crying out loud.

(image cc flikr)

This Will Haunt Your Dreams

Alien vs. Pooh! (via Baby Got Books)

I shared this with a friend and she said: "Poor Pooh and friends! I will have nightmares....the worst is that because my oldest was OBSESSED with Pooh I probably logged a million hours of video time with Pooh adventures. So, as I read that charming little story I was reading it hearing their voices!"

Enjoy!

Ok, here's some nicer things:

This is the parking deck for the Kansas City Public Library. Niiiiice.

It's nice to know procrastination is not such a bad thing.

And if you've followed my blog for a while you know I think Daylight Savings Time is a crock. For the uninitiated, here's more evidence that not only does this whole "spring ahead" nonsense make me grumpy, it's costing us money!

Now that we've passed health care, can we look into axing DST?

Have a good weekend!

right distal radius fracture

broke my right wrist, so probably less blogging and definitely no friggin shift key since i'm not loving this left-handed thing. good thing there's a caps lock when i want to really whine...

I STILL HAVE GRAD WORK TO DO! A RESEARCH PAPER, AN INTERNSHIP TO WRITE UP, A GROUP PROJECT TO FINISH! NOT TO MENTION TEACHING!

yea, caps lock. that felt nice. i only went to school this morning to tie up some loose ends. when any kids asked what happened i told them i lost an arm-wrestling match to their teacher so they better shape up. don't think they believed me, but it was fun.

my lovely bride is offering to type up all my work, but a hilarious friend of hers had this to say: "I strongly object to you typing Jim’s grad work. It’s too 1950s/60s dutiful wife helping husband through grad/law school. Think Bob Dole’s 1^st wife. Just say noooooooo! For the sake of your status as a modern woman, Jim must learn to type with his toes."

so now i have that to look forward to...

signed,

lefty

Texas: Just Secede Already

The Enlightenment Goes Dark Carl Zimmer

The War On Facts onegoodmove

Dear Other 49 States,

There's an easy fix to this problem. Don't buy textbooks. I mean I could hardly teach from a history textbook with a straight face after reading Lies My Teacher Told Me anyway. And think of the savings! We could use the books in the library instead and have a much more interesting discussion. Remember, our job is to teach student how to think, not what to believe. That's the main thing those yahoos on the Texas BOE have forgotten.

Image created by Dr. Phil Plait, back when this same group of yahoos were trying to mess with evolution.

*update: Dr. Plait has his own reaction to the Texas BOE, with updated graphic!

Don't Get Me Started On Grammar...

Too late. The Booking Through Thursday question this week is on that very topic.

I think grammar is important but I think we teach it in exactly the wrong way. I agree with Dr. Stephen Krashen that we shouldn't directly teach grammar at all until high school and then only in an open-book manner.

Right now we're in crunch time at our district, prepping for the infernal high-stakes test next month. The children were just given a benchmark test and our job is to focus on their lowest performing items and focus on those skills for the next month to try to help them do better on the big test.

Many of those items in elementary school are grammar-related. I'm sorry, but I don't think it's developmentally appropriate. Unless a child is walking around speaking in gibberish because they're switching nouns and verbs or something, then there is no point. So what if they can name an adjective or an adverb? Most people don't know or care what torque in their car engine is, but they can still drive. Certainly the students should be learning to express themselves in writing and some basic rules of grammar and punctuation are necessary, but testing them on names of things like adverbs, adjectives, homophones, etc. is just silly.

I won't even go into the dreadful practice of diagramming sentences they get into in middle school, except to say this: the only thing you learn from diagramming sentences is how to diagram sentences.

If you want to learn better grammar and writing style? Read as much well-written writing as you can and endeavor to write as clearly as possible.

Accelerated Evil

Last week I summarized a much more complete post by Mark Pennington which more completely summarized some of the main criticisms of the Accelerated Reading program used in many schools.

Today, thanks to a fellow list-maker who took the time to compile a list which exemplifies the problem with number four on the list (explained here by Mr. Pennington):

4. Using AR tends to encourage some students to read books that most teachers and parents would consider inappropriate for certain age levels. Although Renaissance Learning is careful to throw the burden of book approval onto the shoulders of teachers and parents, students get more points for reading and passing quizzes on higher reading levels and longer books. Although an interest level is provided as is a brief synopsis/cautionary warning on the AR site, students often simply select books by the title, cover, availability, or point value. Thus, a fourth grader might wind up “reading” Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye (4.7 ATOS readability level) and a sixth grader might plow through Camus’ The Stranger (6.2 ATOS readability level). Hardly appropriate reading material for these grade levels! Content is not considered in the AR point system and students are, of course, reading for those points.

The list-maker, I must confess, also came up with the witty title of this blog post and emailed the whole thing to me because it was felt mine was a grubbier venue for this tawdry exercise. No, that wasn't it. Wait. Oh, never mind.

Now not everything in these books, oh say like human sexuality, is actually evil. And while I hardly think school and by extension the library should be a reality-free zone and that everyone should be able to read pretty much whatever they want to, I think you'll agree that many people would question the validity of recommending this list of books to 11-13 year olds. I like many of the books on the list and there may indeed be readers of those ages perfectly suited to reading some of them. Hell, I read Forever in middle school and didn't need AR points for motivation!

The argument may be made that Renaissance Learning, Inc. (the producers of AR) are not necessarily recommending these titles for middle schoolers. Bah! Read again what Mr. Pennington points out above. They induce children to read for points, not content. If a kid that's an avid AR point scrounger comes across a book "on their level" with a nice point spread, they'll read it. If it has sex, drugs, and rock and roll in it? All the better! Look at this list and Mr. Pennigton's point is made clear. (All information is from renlearn.com):

All the Way Behrens, Andy Level 4.3 Points 7

Hoping to have sex for the first time with a girl he has met on the Internet, seventeen-year-old Ian drives with his two best friends from Illinois to South Carolina.

Anatomy of a Boyfriend Snadowsky, Daria Level 5.0 Points 9

Text contains sexual situations throughout.

Boy Toy Lyga, Barry Level 4.5 Points 15

The plot contains profanity and graphic sexual references.

Claiming Georgia Tate Amateau, Gigi EN 5.0 UG 6

Twelve-year-old Georgia Tate feels loved and safe living with Nana and Granddaddy, until her sexually abusive father tries to win custody of her. This plot contains sexual situations.

Crank Hopkins, Ellen Level 4.3 Points 5

Visiting her absentee father, Kristina's life turns upside-down when he introduces her to the dark world of crank, or crystal meth. The story, told in jagged free verse, contains profanity, explicit sexual situations and blatant descriptions of drug use.

The Da Vinci Code Brown, Dan Level 6.4 Points 23

Doing It Burgess, Melvin Level 4.4 Points 12

Three teenage friends, Dino, Jonathon, and Ben, confront the confusions, fears, and joys of adolescent male sexuality.

Forever Blume, Judy Level 4.1 Points 5

A graphic novel of a teenage senior-year love affair based primarily on sexual attraction.

Gluttony Wasserman, Robin Level 5.2 Points 9

The plot contains adult language and sexual activity. Book #6 (Oddly, the book Lust doesn’t have an AR test, but others in the series do.)

The Lovely Bones Sebold, Alice Level 6.0 Points 16

Nineteen Minutes Picoult, Jodi Level6.0 Points 29

Residents of Sterling, NH, are affected after a shooting at the high school leaves ten people dead and the judge presiding over the trial tries to remain unbiased, even though her daughter is a witness. The plot contains sexual references and violence

Nothing Can Keep Us Together: A Gossip Girl Novel von Ziegesar, Cecily Level 6.8 Points 10

The plot contains profanity, sexual situations, alcohol and drug use.

Punkzilla Rapp, Adam Level 6.2 Points 9

A runaway teenager, having overcome an addiction to meth, travels across the country to reconnect with his dying brother and meets a colorful cast of characters along the way. The plot contains sexual situations and profanity.

Push Sapphire Level 4.0 Points 5

The plot contains adult themes including graphic sexual situations and violence. The movie Precious is based off this.

Smack Burgess, Melvin Level 4.6 Points 13

Two English teenagers share their stories of being runaways and becoming heroin addicts.

Weetzie Bat Block, Francesca Lia Level 5.0 Points 2

This story follows the wild adventures of Weetzie Bat and her Los Angeles friends, Dirk, Duck, and My-Secret-Agent-Lover-Man. The plot contains profanity and sexual situations.

Not that You Needed MORE Reasons to Avoid AR

But here are 18 Reasons Not to Use AR (via Mark Pennington at the TeacherLibrarian Ning).

Last week I posted on some questionable practices regarding the shelving of AR books in school libraries. I didn't even say that many bad things about the program itself, other than to point out some compelling evidence that it's not really effective. Even Jim Trelease, who had a relatively balanced view of the program in his Read-Aloud Handbook now sees "more negatives than positives" and collects some damning evidence as well.

I got a lot of comments for that post, so here's some more meat to chew on.

The original article by Mr. Pennington has much more description, so do check it out, bookmark it, and share it around. Some of the arguments are stronger than others, but you can see that in these economically tight times, the expense of AR is hardly justified when the benefits are questionable, so many questions remain, and solid evidence of effectiveness is lacking.

Here's the basic list:

Book Selection

1. Using AR tends to limit reading selection to it's own books.

2. Using AR tends to limit reading selection to a narrow band of readability.

3. Using AR tends to discriminate against small publishing companies and unpopular authors.

4. Using AR tends to encourage some students to read books that most teachers and parents would consider inappropriate for certain age levels.

Reader Response

5. Using AR tends to induce a student mindset that "reading is a chore," and "a job that has to be done."

6. Using AR tends to replace the intrinsic rewards of reading with extrinsic rewards.

7. Using AR tends to foster student and/or teacher competitiveness, which can push students to read books at their frustration reading level or create problems among students.

8. Using AR tends to turn off some students to independent reading.

9. Using AR tends to turn some students into cheaters.

AR is Reductive

10. Using AR tends to supplant portions of established reading programs.

11. AR tends to train students to accumulate facts and trivia as they read in order to answer the multiple choice recall questions.

12. Using AR tends to take up significant instructional time.

13. Using AR tends to reduce the amount of time that teacher spend doing read-alouds and teaching class novels.

14. Using AR tend to make reading into an isolated academic task.

15. Using AR tends to drain resources that could certainly be used for other educational priorities.

16. Using AR tends to minimize the teaching and instructional practice in diagnostically-based reading strategies.

17. Using AR tends to limit differentiated instruction.

Research Base

18. Although a plethora of research studies involving AR are cited on the Renaissance Learning website, the research base is questionable at best.

Thanks, Mr. Pennington, for more ammo!

Dara O'Briain

For this week's Skeptical Sunday video: some NSFW language, but man oh man is it funny. I often think the funny is the best way to combat the nuttiness. Have a great week!

I Give Up

So do all of America's experts, according to The Onion (NSFW). That is an awesome article.

I needed cheering up after a fire alarm being pulled right as the kids were coming in, ensuring mass chaos, and right as we were beginning bus call in the afternoon, ensuring more mass chaos.

Actually, I must say, it wasn't really that chaotic. Everyone was great. It was just generally sucky. It could turn out to be a problem with the alarm, but I'm betting on some goofball kid who I will continue to make up imaginary punishments for. Suspension won't be good enough. I was thinking having him (or her) call all the parents one at a time and profusely apologize. With around 1400 students that would take a while but I'm not sure it's draconian enough.

Leave your ideas in the comments. This should be fun. At least we don't have to worry about what all those pesky experts think.

A Passion For Reading

Steven L. Layne has a new book coming out that looks good. Igniting a Passion for Reading (via Practically Paradise). On the Stenhouse site you can look at a Flash version of the book and read as much of it as your eyeballs can take in that format.

I've scanned some of it and can't wait to read the whole thing. It's about bringing much-needed balance to the teaching of reading, something I'm all for. The NCTE has recently drunk the Kool-Aid and according to Krashen and Ohanian, is promoting the LEARN Act which calls for explicit, systematic teaching of literacy as the only way, even more testing, and pays little attention to access of actual books. This is not balance, my friends.

Layne has a diagram on page seven that has a bisected circle. On the left half are all the things the LEARN Act promotes (along with every teacher, administrator, and stakeholder): Phonetics, Fluency, Comprehension, Semantics, Syntax. We're doing a pretty good job of all that and I am not arguing that any of these skills should be sacrificed. Either is Layne. But there's another half of the circle that we are totally leaving by the wayside and you need that half if you want to be a whole reader:

Interest

Attitude

Motivation

Engagement

But how will we test those things, you ask? I don't really care. I just know it is something that is sorely lacking and if we don't do something about it we might as well give up the whole game. The entire point of having mandatory public schooling is to improve our democracy. It's not to have better test scores, Dolores Umbridge. If we don't have curious, teachable, engaged readers and thinkers (no matter their level or ability) then we're not really doing our job. (And as a byproduct of real engageent, the test scores go up!)

It's like baseball or ballet. Yes, you need to practice skills. But you also need to just play games and dance or what are you learning all those skills for?

"Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts."

(This quotation is said to be from a sign hanging in Albert Einstein's Princeton office and is often attributed to him. Anyone done more research on it?)

Listening to Speeches

Pam is right, this is getting crazier by the minute. Why are people freaking out about a president giving a speech? I don't care if the president is liberal or conservative or whatever, he is the president and if he's giving a speech to school children I'd probably let them watch it. It could come from President Obama or President Bush, it doesn't matter. At least Ms. Yingling's concerns were more about delivery than content.

This isn't about politics--it's about being rational, thoughtful citizens. We need to be able to listen to differing views and make up our own minds. I personally thought that George W. Bush's first term was illegitimate and that the high court had no business intervening on the election. But if he had stated that he was giving a speech and he wanted the school children to hear it, if I was able to I would have made it available. He's the president for crying out loud. He's not going to tell them to all run around in the streets with water balloons or something. Jeez.

I mean "indoctrinate"? Really? Into what? Being a citizen in a democracy? It's ok, you don't have to agree with everything they say. You don't even have to watch it. But this scaremongering over different points of view are ridiculous. Especially when you haven't even heard them yet.

Let the man give his speech...then if it's loopy you can criticize.

Since we're on the topic of speeches and ideological differences, I want to share another speech. On October 3, 1983 the recently departed senator, Edward Kennedy gave this amazing speech to Jerry Falwell's then-named Liberty Baptist College, now know as Liberty University. Yes, you read that right. The most liberal senator in congress spoke at Jerry Falwell's college during the height of the whole "moral majority" business. He was, like always, warm and funny and unafraid to say what he thought. No matter your personal political views, it's a beautiful thing to watch.

Oh to live in a time and a place in which healthy and reasoned debate are not only accepted, but embraced. If we can't even listen to each other, how can we learn anything?

What the Hell...

At my advancing age, it's good to know the difference...

My Spring Break

This, my friends, is a playhouse we special ordered. This is my daughter's gift from us (and chip-ins from extended family) for her sixth birthday. Cute, no?

It's also most of my Spring Break. When you read the description you read things like "Floor kit included," "Everything is pre-cut, nothing to saw," and, best of all, "Easy to assemble with hammer, screwdriver, tape measure and level."

Friggin' liars. "Kit" my tuckus. It came wrapped in plastic on a pallet. When my neighbor and I opened it up to inventory the pieces it was something like 16,000 bits and pieces. Maybe.

Four of us guys (two of them with much building experience) spent around twelve hours on the Sunday before break framing the damn thing. We've spent the last week on and off adding stuff and priming and painting and more. We've done everything except finish painting and shingling the roof. No, really.

So it'll get done this weekend and my daughter will love it but SHEESH. Oh, and the tools we've had to use they forget to mention include a power drill, ladders, metal shears, freaking SCAFFOLDING, and yes, a damn saw.

I know it'll all be worth it and yadda yadda, but give me a break. I had no clue what I was getting into.

But then when do I?

_________________________
*This post has been edited to remove disparaging remarks about the company we bought it from.  It has come to my attention that a search of this product includes this post high up on the search results.  My daughter loves this thing and I don't want to badmouth anyone.  I'm here to blog about things like reading out loud to your kids more, not consumer protection.  Yes, you should know what you're getting into when you take on a project like this (or do what we did and have plenty of more knowledgeable friends to help out), but it's my blog and I'm going to go ahead and blur our some of the details.

Librarians Aren't Teachers?!

So says the Dallas school district, interpreting Federal rules attached to one of those crazy pay-for-performance schemes.

Reading the email they got carefully, they're basically saying that librarians, counsellors and speech therapists are not teachers and are equivalent to the food service staff and the custodians.

I could go on a real rant here, but I won't.  I'll simply say that this helps me decide a question that until now, I thought was a bit silly.  There's apparently been a debate in the world of my future job, namely what should we call ourselves?  Media Specialists?  Librarians?  Teacher-Librarians?

It seemed silly to me until now.  Now I'm throwing my hat in with the Canadians and going for the title Teacher-Librarian.

The real silly thing is this pay-for-performance nonsense.  If you don't think every single person in the building is contributing to the education of these children--including our wonderful food service staff and custodians, then you are deluding yourself.

Yes, the classroom teachers get dumped on when it comes to the grading and the standardized tests and that is wrong.  But saying that that someone who, at least it our district, is required to have a minimum of a Master's degree and must go through the yearly teaching goals and observation ritual (that would be observations of teaching) is not a teacher is kidding themselves.

Ok, so I went into a rant...

(Clip art licensed from the Clip Art Gallery on DiscoverySchool.com)

Jenny McCarthy's Body Count

I mean I knew she was nuts with the whole anti-vaccination thing, but had you heard of this loopy "Indigo Moms" stuff.  It's way way out there.  Here's a link, if you're not afraid to lose some brain cells.  Crystal healing?  Anti-vaccination?  Sounds like a good way to end up with some dead children.

Of course there have been more measles outbreaks because of these people.  They really are starting to get a body count.  For an interesting listen, check out the This America Life podcast called "Ruining It for the Rest of Us" in which they discuss the effect these anti-vaxxer's have on all of us.  It's crazy, but it's deadly crazy.

"Professional Development"

Or, another huge waste of time and money.

I spent ten hours in "professional development" this week. It was intended to inform us of the new Math textbook adoption. I teach English to Speakers of Other Languages. I won't say I don't teach math at all, but I certainly don't get math textbooks or need TEN HOURS of people telling me that "graphic organizers are a good idea" or giving me some math manipulatives to play with. I learned about math manipulatives in college! They really were talking to us like we'd never taught math before in our lives and the ENTIRE thing could have been easily cut to five hours (or less).

Every teacher in our large system had to do this training whether they get the textbooks or not. My wife teaches at a school that uses a completely different program and she still has to go. How much time and money do they have? If I hear about spending cuts this year, I'm going to go nuts...

This Is The Harm

When I go off on the occasional skeptical rant about some nonsense like astrologists or psychics I always get the, "What's the harm?" question.

Here's the harm.

A single mom struggling with all her might to raise her 11-year-old autistic daughter and is called to a meeting in which the principal and vice-principal thought it was appropriate to scare her to death with tales of her daughter's alleged sexual abuse. They'd already called Child Services. Good thing the Child Services folks had cooler heads than these moronic administrators.

Why were they morons? The only evidence came from a psychic.

"The teacher looked and me and said: 'We have to tell you something. The educational assistant who works with Victoria went to see a psychic last night, and the psychic asked the educational assistant at that particular time if she works with a little girl by the name of "V." And she said 'yes, I do.' And she said, 'well, you need to know that that child is being sexually abused by a man between the ages of 23 and 26.'"

That anyone would put this woman through that is the harm.

Whenever you think or hear someone ask, "What's the harm?"

Send them this link.

Michael Allen Buckner

MICHAEL ALLEN BUCKNER

5014 SWINDON CRT

LILBURN GA 30047

(770) 923-9970

VIOLATION OF PROBATION

THEFT BY DECEPTION

He came to my house one night and ran a scam on me. We had just moved into our house a few weeks earlier and he came knocking on our door at around 10pm telling a story about how he lived just down the street and had seen my lights on and his kid needed a prescription and he'd left his wallet in his work truck and he'd pay me back after church on Sunday. And I gave him $30. He looked friendlier (and blonder). As soon as he was driving away I slapped my head and knew I'd just been taken. A clear example of me not using my critical thinking skills. Sheesh.

I told everyone I knew about him and heard the same exact story from people all around my county. Now that he's in the clink, I've shared his booking email with many other teachers in our system and again, I keep hearing the same story. I guess if it works for you you keep doing it.

Well, it's not going to work anymore, Mike.