My school will finally have a permanent residence… that is, if Fulton County Schools don’t get their way. The Weber School has been housed in temporary buildings (modular units or trailers) next to Zaban Park (the Marcus Jewish Community Center of Atlanta). After spending years looking for the perfect site — “the geographic center of Atlanta’s Jewish population” as our board president put it — a former property of Lucent Technologies was purchased. Our groundbreaking ceremony is set for this Sunday.

But there’s a glitch. Fulton County Schools approached our board with a proposal to buy the land to build an elementary school. Our board refused. Fulton County is now threatening to exercise their right of eminent domain — which means condemning private property and seizing it for the “public good.” Fulton County Schools explained that their elementary schools in Sandy Springs are bursting at the seams, and they need to build a school.

I don’t understand why a new school has to be located on our property, which would effectively snatch away everything our community has worked for over the last seven years. I hope that our community (and you, if you are so inclined) will rally against this move. It would break many hearts if this spurious method of attaining property were allowed to be successful. I sincerely hope that Fulton County will find a better solution to this problem.

Many teachers are upset about testing requirements of NCLB, but I wonder if, in all the furor, many haven’t forgotten about the provision requiring highly qualified teachers in each classroom? It would seem that some of us, like the teachers referenced in a recent U.S. News and World Report article, will find our degrees, our skills, and our experience in high demand.

Sharp young teachers are in a seller’s market these days–and not just because of shortages plaguing many parts of the country. While the testing requirements of No Child Left Behind may have received more attention, the federal law is equally clear that all kids deserve fine teachers and that staffing solutions of years past–too many people with subpar credentials or assigned to subjects out of their field–no longer pass muster. By the end of this school year, all teachers of core academic classes must be “highly qualified” in their content area, and administrators are racing to beat the deadline.

Teaching? Lucrative? Maybe not. But at least teachers will be more level with their counterparts in other professions.

Cobb County (GA.) Schools Superintendent Joseph Redden announced his resignation today (free registration or BugMeNot). Is it just me, or does this passage seem a little less “newsy” and more opinionated?

Redden’s departure from the 104,000-student system surprises few, if any. Redden had defended himself and his staff of wrongdoing after a critical report on the bidding process for what would have been one of the nation’s largest efforts to provide laptop computers to students. But his situation had become increasingly dysfunctional.The ambitious program proposed by Redden in February would eventually have provided computers for all the school system’s teachers and all students in grades six through 12. In unveiling the idea, Redden chose to emphasize the magnitude of the program rather than the incremental steps that might have been an easier sell.

After a divisive public debate, a lawsuit brought by a former county commissioner stopped the program last month, not on its merits but on the plan to fund it with proceeds from a special sales tax approved in 2003. Then, Aug. 14, came the stinging report by a corporate investigator alleging bias and deception in the bidding process for the contract that had been won by Apple Computer.

Most of the buzz in the education blogosphere seemed to indicate that many educators felt Cobb should have been able to get the laptops. I live in the next county over from Cobb, and I teach at a private school. I still can’t figure out how this would have been affordable. We have about 150 students, and we can’t afford to get them laptops. Cobb has over 100,000 students.

Other than that, from personal experience, I can say it’s great when students have laptops. There are a few who try to abuse it — play solitaire or IM — but for the most part, it really helps them organize and neaten up their work.

Ever since I was finishing up my teaching degree in 1996-97, I’ve been hearing about this projected teacher shortage (free registration or BugMeNot). With increasing demands of NCLB, and complaints about the calibre of teaching candidates (and teachers themselves), not to mention concerns about teacher education, what on earth are we going to do to address this critical issue? Frankly, I know I for one have no desire to return to public schools. I’m way too happy in my current position.

For most of my career, it did seem like I was one of the younger teachers. One by one, I’ve seen colleagues retire after 30 odd years in education. It was actually kind of difficult to find a teaching position when I first went looking. I imagine that at some point, some schools will be desperate for bodies in the classroom, and I wonder what will happen when the number of schools who fail to make AYP skyrockets.

In a somewhat related issue, this is probably old news, but it was new to me. I recently read an article about a New York teacher who failed his certification exam several times paid a former homeless man with Asperger’s syndrome to take his exam for him. We don’t have tenure in Georgia. I think a principal with a documented case file on a problematic teacher could very easily dismiss said teacher from his/her position, and I doubt it would take years, which is something about which tenure-opponents frequently complain when issues of teacher competence make the news. Frankly, I’m of the opinion that a teacher ought to be able to pass a test. I guess this infamous 1999 NY Post article is no longer available for free from the source (free preview), but honestly… if this is not a hoax, and there are teachers who really wrote such things on communication that went home, there is something really scary going on, and frankly, I wouldn’t want such teachers teaching my child.

I think the bottom line for all of us as educators is to advocate for ourselves, but also think about our own children, or if we have none, our hypothetical children, and ask ourselves — would I want this for my child?

You know, the other day, I was talking with a colleague, and she mentioned that there is not one person she’s ever talked to or taught that doesn’t have some story about a destructive teacher. The teacher that in some way inflicted a wrong that still bothers us to this day. My mother will never forget Miss Allen, who broke her brand new crayon on the first day of school in junior high when she borrowed it to demonstrate something, then excused it with a glib, “Oh, well, it’s better like this anyway.” Incidentally, I had Miss Allen myself when I went to middle school and suffered no ill effects. From this incident, I can only assume we sometimes inadvertently cause harm. Barbara, my colleage, says that is her rule of thumb as a teacher — first, do no harm.

Personally, I think if your writing skills resemble those of the teachers in that NY Post article or if you are unable to pass certification tests after repeated attempts, you need to ask yourself if you aren’t doing your students serious harm.

Interesting… according to an article in yesterday’s Atlanta Journal-Constitution, a school at which I taught from 2002-2004 was required to allow students to transfer to another school because they failed to make AYP for two years in a row. I wish I could say I was surprised, but after being taken to task for having standards that were too high and being blamed for schoolwide discipline issues when they occurred in my classroom, I just can’t say that I didn’t see that one coming.

I have problems with NCLB, and for all I know, the high number of Special Education students and ESOL students at my former school scoring low on standardized tests may be the reason they failed to make AYP. Thing is, there are more problems than test scores at some schools. Teacher morale at my particular former school was extremely low. I was absolutely miserable there. Even though I disagree with many of the finer points of NCLB, I hate to admit that after the shabby treatment I received by administrators at my former school, it gave me a sort of grim satisfaction to see them fail.

Rick Badie (free registration or BugMeNot) laments the loss of summer vacation, as all of Georgia’s public schools start by August 15:

That our kids return to school in a week. That Mom and Dad are already tax-free shopping for clothes and supplies, and that soon our kids will be prepping for high-stake tests.We’ve lost practically all of August. The traditional months of summer have been truncated. We get less true summer time to spend with Big Momma, see movies, have sleepovers, play basketball, read, and yes — succumb, even, to boredom. Our dog days of summer are spent in class, not poolside.

This year, all of the state’s public schools will open up by Aug. 15. Next Monday, Gwinnett’s 142,000 or so students join others returning to class in eight other city and county school systems in the Atlanta area. Some school systems, like those in Cherokee and Newton county, are already in school or start Monday.

While I don’t like starting this early either, I noticed that no mention was made of the fact that students are released around the third week of May, instead of June, and that in some places, longer breaks at Thanksgiving and in February have been instituted. I may be wrong, and someone please correct me if I am, but I don’t think the school year is actually longer. I think it just starts earlier.

And if that’s the case, why don’t Badie and his family sit by the pool and visit Big Momma in June and July? The weather in Georgia is actually a little more bearable in June than in August, in my opinion.

I guess to me, it doesn’t matter either way, but it is nice to end the first semester before winter break instead of having two weeks hang over after the break.

According to the Seattle Times, Shorewood High School in Shoreline, Washington recently shredded remaining copies of the student literary magazine and reprinted it minus a poem with an offensive expletive in the title. A 35-year veteran teacher of the district, Steve Kelly, was asked to step down as the magazine’s advisor.

Here is the poem, as reprinted by the Times:

My first (expletive) sure he claims he loves me
and holds me oh so tight
he makes me believe this is special
that he can hold on all night
he claims he isn’t pressuring me
but his hand is down my pants
temptation rises and I give in
he turns over
checks the time
gets up and drives me home
no kiss goodnight
no I love you
and no telephone call

— Zoya Raskina

In the 1988, the Supreme Court decided one of the most important cases involving student publications. Hazelwood High School’s newspaper, Spectrum, printed printed some articles about teenage pregnancy, including personal experiences of Hazelwood High School students. The administration decided to censor the articles, and the students fought the decision, as the expression goes, all the way to the Supreme Court. The Court decided in favor of the district:

In a 5-3 decision, the majority of the Court found that the students’ First Amendment rights had not been violated. The Court decided that Spectrum was part of the school curriculum and school administrators could control its content. The newspaper was not a “public forum” and school officials could impose “reasonable restrictions.”

Depending on your point of view, this decision may have overturned part of Tinker v. Des Moines Independent School District, which asserted that students do not “shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.” According to David B. Rubin, an attorney who specializes in school law:

[O]ne of the main criteria in dealing with school censorship cases relates to what is called the “Tinker disruption standard,” that the Court outlined in the case’s ruling.”Students do have First Amendment rights to express themselves as long as it doesn’t interfere with the order of the school day,” Rubin explained. “The question is, does the student expression cause disruption in the school,” he stated. “Censorship issues depend on what is being said or expressed to whom, and in what context.”

Rubin noted that what is called the “forum issue” is the second criteria in deciding school censorship cases, namely whether student expression is part of a school function regulated by the school district, or whether it is entirely initiated by students.

“If it’s a school-sponsored function or forum, then school authorities have the right to set their own standards,” Rubin said. “The school districts have a certain leeway as to how vigorously they exercise their legal powers.”

Rubin clarified that schools must have “legitimate pedagogical [educational] concerns” when dealing with censorship issues.

Personally, I don’t see that the school crossed any lines. They exercised their right, according to the Supreme Court, to impose “reasonable restrictions” upon the content of the magazine. To be honest, were I the advisor of that magazine, I probably would not approve a student work containing that sort of profanity — and I think it is fairly clear what the “expletive deleted” was. I know many students and possibly teachers believe that is a violation of First Amendment Rights, but I don’t agree. By excising the poem, the school is not prohibiting the student from publishing her work elsewhere. And frankly, deciding what to publish is a right exercised by every publishing company in America — yet no one complains about not being given a voice if their work is denied publication by one house. They simply submit the work to another house.

I believe students should have access to reading material without censorship. I don’t agree with preventing access to works of literature. However, I also don’t think the school is necessarily required to provide students an outlet for their work, especially if it might be considered offensive. In my opinion, the school district needs to consistently enforce its own rules about censorship, which the article implies it has not done, and the magazine advisor should have used, well, a little bit of common sense. Technically, he didn’t lose his job, and there are schools in America that would have fired him for this — teachers have lost their jobs over similar issues. Cissy Lacks, a 25-year veteran teacher was fired from the Ferguson Florissant School District in Missouri for allowing students to use expletives in dialogue written for drama exercises. She was ordered reinstated by a jury, but her school district appealed, and her reinstatement was overturned. The Supreme Court refused to hear her case. Considering the precedent the Cissy Lacks case established, Steve Kelly is fortunate.

Sources: Objectionable Content vs. Freedom of Expression: Battles of School Censorship and FileRoom.org — Cissy Lacks, high school teacher

The Boston Globe reports that only 20% of teachers in public schools are male; in elementary schools, the number is a mere 9%. Think fast — did you have any male teachers in your elementary school? We had one. Mr. Veach. My sister was in his class in 5th grade. The numbers seemed to gradually increase until college, when the teachers were predominantly male.

Some people believe that teaching is “woman’s work.” It’s too nurturing, too maternal. However, men who teach young children have another issue with which to contend: accusations of child molestation.

According to Bryan Nelson, founder of the Minneapolis-based MenTeach:

[S]ome men who might want to teach fear false molestation accusations, and … society looks at men with suspicion. That view of men has been worsened, he said, by recent attention to priest abuse scandals and even the trial faced by Michael Jackson. “Society has a narrow view of men,” Nelson said. “We think men are dangerous.”

One might argue that lately, it seems like female middle school teachers are looking kind of dangerous in that regard. My daughter had a male kindergarten teacher for a couple of months. He had an accident and was unable to continue teaching that year, but I will admit I thought it was kind of odd — I asked myself why a man would want to teach kindergarten. I have to come clean with gender biases of my own. I don’t think men are any better or worse than women at teaching. But I will admit that I did scratch my head over a man teaching kindergarten. And why should that be? Sarah has had male music and P.E. teachers since then, but not a full-time classroom instructor; however, I can say unequivocally that her male music teacher is one of the best teachers of elementary school children I’ve come across. In addition, he is also very caring with Sarah, and I can tell he has made a significant impression upon her.

One of the most caring teachers I ever had was Mr. Velando, my homeroom, math and reading teacher in 6th grade. He bought me an autograph book when I placed first on our team/second in 6th grade/4th in the school in the spelling bee. He, along with Mrs. Van, my Language Arts and Social Studies teacher, took me to my favorite restaurant, Crystal’s Pizza (sadly defunct) with another student to celebrate our awards as Students of the Month (I was, I think, January, and the other student was December). He was a truly great teacher.

I found this story interesting, too, because I will be the only female teacher in the English Department next year; however, the Science Department will be totally female. I don’t think I’ve ever been in the position of being the only female in my department. I’m not worried about it, but I am wondering how it will be different.