Thoughts on a Cool Fall Day

As we move into October the weather has turned decidedly cooler. Last weekend my wife and I went to Iowa for my 35th college reunion. My graduating class was approximately 250, about 25 of whom showed up for the reunion. It was a really nice time.
I always enjoy seeing my old friends from college. When in school, we were a wild and spirited bunch. Now we are bordering on old and lack the ability to party like we used to. The all class party on the first evening went from 9:00 to about 11:00. After the party,some of the group meet in the lounge of the hotel where we were staying for a drink. My wife and I were back in our room by midnight!
The one college buddy I want to talk about is Denny. Denny and I were the only ones of our group to be in Education and on Saturday morning we had a chance to share breakfast and talk. After graduation, Denny went to work for a Catholic school, and, after about 10 years, moved to a public junior high and has been there ever since. He teaches Geography and coaches girls volleyball. When he first moved to his public school it serviced a working class white population. As with many city districts, the student population has undergone change and now his building services a significant number of minority students. He acknowledged that things are more difficult now but still exhibits the same enthusiasm that I remember the so well. He is especially proud of many of his former charges who, while not the best students when they were in school, have been successful in life. Many of them attribute their success, in part, to his approach to learning. I imagine the students see him as tough, but likable. I admire his success with difficult students. As he mentioned at breakfast, he knows how to be mean, and then be nice, getting the most out of his pupils.
I hope I can maintain the kind of enthusiasm that Denny exhibits so naturally. We will see at the next reunion in 2014.
As an update to “Why Difficult Courses Have Requirements” (September 2nd 2009) the AP Chemistry student I mentioned who is unqualified for class because of having taken Chemistry in summer school has decided to drop. Guidance allowed him to retake Honors Chemistry and he was placed in my 2nd period class. As I said he is a bright young man who lacked the background to succeed. He has an A- now and seems to be much happier.
The young man who I wrote about in “Cheaters (Should) Never Prosper” (September 19th, 2009) has also decided to drop Honors Chemistry. With a zero on the second exam, along with F’s on the other two, he has dug himself a hole he can’t climb out of. He will be moved to a regular Chemistry class with another teacher. The young man told his guidance counselor that the problem was me—he just can’t learn from me. She knows its bullshit, but we both approved the move; he is now someone else’s problem. On the last exam the class average was 91; his grade was 73. Apparently he can’t learn from a teacher if he has to pay attention to master the material. His learning style is to never pay attention, take notes, or do homework on time; then blame the teacher and ask for a schedule change when he fails.
I also picked up a student from regular Chemistry. She is a Chinese exchange student who complained that the regular level was too easy. On the first exam she got an A and is working out well—unlike so many other exchange students I have dealt with in the past she speaks excellent English.

Why Difficult Courses Have Requirements

“A vision, without the ability to execute, is probably a hallucination.” – Stephen M. Chase

One problem I deal with every summer is the numerous requests from students and parents for changes in science placement for the next school year. In the past, I generally denied most requests for moving students up to honors because I feel it is generally a bad idea. I still think it is a bad idea, but recently I have begun allowing the move, after voicing my concerns of course. My new policy is---move if you want, but accept the consequences of your bad decision. Two requests to move students into advanced placement chemistry are examples.

At the end of last semester I was informed that we were enrolling a transfer student from England for the next year. She was going to be a junior and wanted to take AP Chemistry; having finished the European equivalent of first year chemistry. My experience with exchange students has been that what European countries call chemistry is mostly a general science course that does not prepare students with enough background to succeed in AP. When the request came in I didn’t argue with the parent, just said OK and sent out a copy of my “summer homework” assignment consisting of 106 questions reviewing Honors Chemistry. I told the parent that a test would be given the second day of class covering the assignment and it would be the first grade of the quarter. The directions in the assignment clearly state that the student is expected to understand the material in the assignment on the first day of class, the material would not be re-taught. The parent and student saw what was expected and she dropped down to Honors Chemistry—where she should have been placed in the beginning.

The second student appears not to have been so smart about it. He took chemistry this summer at another school. Any reasonable person should realize that you can’t learn 38 weeks of chemistry in 6 weeks, and that the summer course could not be sufficient preparation for AP. I expressed my concerns but allowed it because the parents insisted. I sent out the same summer homework sheets, but the student did not drop. He showed up the first day of school with only half the work done. He just finished his test and got a 59%; the average grade being about 80%. His first grade will be an F and, since I am not going to re-teach the material he missed, may fail every test after. At some point he will either drop the class because he is failing or his parents will have to hire a tutor to help him catch up. Since he is on tuition assistance and probably can’t afford to hire a tutor the outcome will not be pretty. I have already decided not to say “I told you so!” when it happens. In real life, people learn from their mistakes, but smart people learn from others mistakes; and possibly in the future I will get more support and cooperation from guidance and the administration before things break bad. This is a very nice young man from what I can see from my dealings with him. He is polite, respectful, and hard working. All admirable qualities, but none of which translate into a solid background in chemistry.

One of the most regrettable things we tell a student is that they can do anything they want if they work hard enough. Of course this is a lie. No matter how hard I work I will never be an Olympic sprinter.

Welcome Back!

Classes have started for the 2009-2010 school year and the most common question I hear from colleagues or former students when I see them again is, “How was your summer?” My answer is always the same….”Not long enough!”
I have been very lazy about writing anything this summer for the bog; which doesn’t mean that nothing has happened, just that nothing has moved me to get off the chase lounge on my new deck and work. That being said, there were two issues that I needed to address this summer; the new Chemistry text books and student requests concerning placement.
The Chemistry text books we used for the last nine years were a mess and long overdue for replacement. At the end of last year, the department decided on a replacement—the new edition of the book we currently use. The money available from the state of Illinois was enough purchase 349 student books; unfortunately there are 414 Chemistry students registered. The feared drop of 200+ in school enrollment never materialized; there being 3 more students enrolled in Chemistry compared to last year, and, depending on who you talk to, either 15 more students enrolled in school or about 20 less. Either way, enrollment has firmed up and we appear to be on solid ground for the time being.
The school needed to purchase approximately 70 additional books to cover the shortage. We decided to pay for them through the department budget and charge each student an extra $10 on their lab book for the next two years to cover the cost. I contacted the publisher’s rep who sold us the original 349 to get a price for the additional books. She emailed me a proposal for $119/copy, about $10 more than they charged for the state. When I called the order in the customer service rep refused to honor the proposal price, insisting that the books could be sold for no less than $159 each. I emailed the rep and informed her of the problem; telling her that we decided to cancel the order and use the old books for another year because of the cost.
Within two days I got calls from three different people, including the rep, horrified that we would cancel the order which totaled more than $45,000. The rep explained that it was her fault for not sending a copy of the proposal to customer service before I called. I would have gladly paid the $119 that was first agreed to as well as paying for the teacher’s materials—though I did not tell the rep this. After some negotiations, we agreed on a price of $105/book + six free sets of teacher materials worth approximately $300 each. The fortunate mix-up by the publisher saved the school almost $7000.
Next Post: Students placement requests.

No Experience Necessary

Several weeks ago, on my way to run errands, I was listening to a local sports-talk radio station. The topic for the morning was the alleged grade scandal surrounding Chicago Bulls star Derrick Rose. According to sources, Rose’s school records were falsified by someone working for the Chicago Public Schools. Both local newspapers broke stories that someone had changed a D to a C, apparently so his transcript would qualify under NCAA rules for a Division I school. The article also alleges that three classmates of Rose and seven soccer players from another CPS were helped, some when F’s they had received were changed to A’s. It is also reported that someone took the SAT test for Rose so he could qualify.
A misguided caller to the sports-talk show commented that the individuals involved should be given “Teacher of the Year” awards for looking out for his “best interests” just as he (the caller) would hope someone would do for his kids. I hope, if the caller ever has a major health problem that his physician wasn’t admitted to medical school because someone—looking out for his best interests—“doctored” his school records. Some people are just dumb as hair. It is general stupidity like this that has allowed the Chicago Public School system to evolve into nothing more than a pathetic joke being played on the citizens of that city. Take these other examples into consideration.
A friend of mine, who is a teacher in the CPS system, lost his position a year ago teaching high school Chemistry. According to his contract, he is allowed to “substitute” for a full year at full pay. The central office sends him out to a different school every week to “help out”, which usually means sitting around in the teacher’s lounge and reading all day. He is bored by this, so he volunteers to do different things. One school requested that he be sent back for an additional week in order to finish helping the library do inventory. During this past “unemployed” year he attended all the available “job fairs” held by the central office, looking for a full time position. According to him, hundreds of people show up to these fairs, many displaced teachers just like himself. Recruiters from attending schools all claim to have positions available and take his resume. They all promise to call him within a week to set up an interview but he never gets a call back. If he does get an interview it usually goes well. He is an experienced teacher with an “excellent” rating from his former supervisors. The person giving the interview promises to get back to him next week about the position but never calls (or returns his calls).
The last job fair he attended allowed the displaced teachers (like himself) to enter an hour before new teachers so they could have first crack at the open positions. He claims that all of the early birds appeared to be over 40. When the doors opened for the new people, there were so many that it took 15 minutes for all of them to enter the facility. He said they all were young kids who looked like they were just out of school. It has been more than a week now and none of the promised calls to set up an interview have come.
He lost his last teaching position when the school was “reorganized.” He was replaced by a first year teacher who lasted 3 months before quitting. It was reported in the news last week that the many Chicago Public Schools "lose" 25% of their teachers every year; all of whom have to be replaced. With more than 15 years experience he is just too expensive, at least when there are so many “cheap” new people available to hire. It must not be in the “best interest” of the students to have experienced teachers when their transcripts can be altered to make it look like they passed.