Tales From The Trenches: Classroom Teachers Speak

Welcome to another installment of our regular Sunday feature, Tales From The Trenches: Classroom Teachers Speak. What we have done is assemble an offering of posts that have been published by those who serve in the classroom.

This post will be updated throughout Sunday with additional entries written by those that made reading possible.

Did you know that last week was designated as Teacher Appreciation Week? A Series of Inconsequential Events, which is written by a teacher who writes under the pseudonym "When Pigs Sing," gives us the skinny about how the parents of her school didn't show their appreciation. Warning: this post involves snowglobes from airports, a set of blatantly used decorative pillows, a financial review from a bank, and a laminated, handwritten Hall Pass. No teacher or parent should miss this post.

Bud The Teacher, who just celebrated his 100th day as a blogger, asks a very interesting question: Is Blogging a Habit? Should It Be? Checkout how Bud has assembled the opinions of a number of writers. (I've always thought that blogging is a good habit. The hours are flexible and there is no heavy lifting involved.)

Nicole, at Post-Hip Chick has a heartbreaking story about one of her students. The student's mother was arrested and taken to jail. Nicole's student and one other child were left behind. Incredibly, the police did not call a social worker to come and look after the two girls. The poor kid doesn't even know her dad....

It has been reported that at a recent school dance in New York City's Bronx, a number of students began doing the '05 version of "Dirty Dancing." The students were bumping, and grinding out on the gym floor. Finally, the principal put a stop it by ending the dance early and sending the kids home. Oh yes, (I almost forgot.) Ms. Frizzle reports that the students were 12 and 13 years old...Ms. Frizzle asks some thought-provoking questions about what the limits should be and how they should be set. To top it all off, she turned the entire incident into a very engaging lesson for her students!

It has been said that there is no substitution for experience. The First Year Teacher has learned an unforgettable lesson. When we teachers develop (and then propose) a good idea to an administrator, the teacher is often "rewarded" with extra work.

Have you ever worked at a job site whose days are numbered? Mr. Babylon's school has been given a death sentence that is due to be carried out in two years time. Mr. "B" is weighing his options. (Perhaps he should give California a try.)

Sometimes a school's efforts to relate content and/or tests to the "real world" borders on the absurd. Instructivist is pointing out a couple of the latest absurdities, this time resulting from ambiguous test questions.

Education at the Brink is telling us about some proposed legislative changes to the federal Head Start program. (Full Disclosure: I am highly supportive of Head Start and hope that this program continues to "reach out" to children from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds.)

Should outside speakers who address student assemblies be non-partisan? What would you think if a United States Senator came to your local high school and insulted the President of the United States by calling him a "loser?" Rhymes With Right has the scoop on Senator Harry Reid's (Dem. Nevada) inflammatory remarks that he uttered at Las Vegas's Del Sol High School.

Moebius Stripper at Tall Dark & Mysterious wrote a letter to her local newspaper in order to express concern about the paper's poor coverage of an upcoming referendum. The paper indicated to Moebius that they wished to publish the letter, but wanted a photo of before they would do so. Apparently, the paper won't publish without the photo. In order to illustrate the point, Moebius shows us how the paper employs Carmen Electra and Cindy Crawford as attention grabbers for prostrate cancer and golf swings!

Here at The Education Wonks, we take a look at a number of Calendar Events that are supposedly in honor of teachers. We also offer our take on the student who was forced to hang-up on his mother's phone call from Iraq.

View last week's Tales From The Trenches right here.
--------------------------An Invitation: All writers and readers of education-related posts are invited to contribute to the fourteenth edition of The Carnival of Education. Please send your submissions to: owlshome [at] earthlink [dot] net. We should receive your contributions no later than 10:00 PM (Pacific) Tuesday, May 10, 2005. The Carnival midway will open here at the 'Wonks Wednesday morning. Get our easy-to-follow entry guidelines here. View the latest edition of the Carnival there.

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