Waiting for Superman

I finally watched the documentary "Waiting for Superman." It came out quite a while ago and was playing at the Broadway for a while. I wanted to go see it, but never made it, so it's been on the top of my Netflix queue awaiting release.

So, what did I think? It's good. There is a lot of truth to it.

1. Our system is bad. It was good during the post WWII era, but hasn't changed since. It's not producing people competent enough to work in the high tech fields we are known for (hence the large numbers of people from India and elsewhere working for U.S. companies).
2. Teachers unions block a lot of needed change. Teachers are extremely influential and can make nearly all the difference for a child sometimes, but because of strong unions, tenure, and contract constraints, it is nearly impossible to get rid of bad teachers. Thus one of the most poignant lines in the movie was that education then becomes, "all about the adults."
3. The facts are there and are inarguable. We have greatly increased the number of per pupil spending in our country, but our math and reading scores have remained stagnant while our overall international rankings in reading and math have plummeted.

The film shows positive schools that are working, but then it also focuses a lot of attention on kids trying to get past a lottery system in order to get into the charter schools of their choice (though it does point out that only 1 in 5 charter schools is even successful). It's really depressing, actually. Maybe that's the point. Anyway, unfortunately, the movie doesn't really offer a lot of suggestions until the final credits. The final credits say that this is what we know works:

• Quality Teachers
• More Classroom Time
• World Class Standards
• High Expectations
• Real Accountability

So, I'm an educator . . . what about me? I buy it. I get it. Our system is stuck and it needs change. But, I also just graded two class periods of tests for my sophomore Algebra students. 4th period - average 66% and 8th period - average 60%. I try. I care. I try to get to know kids and build a rapport with them. I think I hold kids to high expectations. We never have a wasted day in my class. I try to work with kids one-on-one as much as I can, but I also am fortunate to have an adult aide in these two classes who also pulls kids out to work with them. I make parent contacts frequently. I work with the special ed. teachers well. My kids are noisy and very irreverant, but usually good and respectful. This year we are even giving them more time in class, by requiring them to come to math every single day on the block schedule. So why don't they get it? Is it me? Is it them? Is it the system? Is it their parents? Is it their elementary teachers? Is it their environment and community? What is it? It's probably a combination of all of those factors.

The movie focused a lot on the extremes. It focused on the extremely bad schools and then the extremely good schools. What about the middle-of-the-road schools like mine? We're better than some, but not wonderful. I don't think I am damaging any students, but I don't know that we are really catching the ones falling through the cracks either.

"Waiting for Superman" brings up some great topics for discussion and urges a call to action. The title, itself, implies that we cannot wait for a super hero to fix the problem, rather we all need to act. Unfortunately, the film didn't offer me any ideas on how to improve the 60% average for my students. I guess I'll have to still work on that.

Until Next Year

The Hunter basketball season has finally come to an end. Despite the terrible coaching, millions of players who have quit or gotten kicked off the team, nights of screaming and hollering by me and my family members, Willie did tell me today that he is sad it is over because he did have fun! I guess that's what matters.

At least the Wolverines beat the Pirates last night. At least they're not worse than Cyprus . . . just tied for worst.

Willie looked great sitting on the bench (though, I may have been fuming because he didn't get in . . . oh well)! I think there is some potential on this team for next year. If they worked on some fundamental skills and learned how to be more of a team, I think they could do well.

Bring on AAU! (an apparently spring Tennis?!?)

Valentines!

Molly goes to school. The people at her school love her and take good care of her. They do all sorts of fun things! Two weeks ago they had a carnival with a clown, a fish pond, and the whole works. One day this week they had a real dog (on loan from someone) running around all day to teach the kids about pets. When we left school the other day, all of the kids yelled, "Bye Molly, Molly! Bye Molly Wolly! By Molly Woller!" She squealed and kicked her feet.

Molly also celebrated Valentines Day! She made a box last Friday with Disney stickers and then she gave out Dr. Seuss Valentines on Monday! Tonight I reminded her by letting her beat on her Valentines box like a drum and then let her eat all the Valentines in the box. She had a great time!

Molly also has several holiday craft projects that she's done this year (all involving painted footprints and handprints). I keep thinking I need to scan them and save them on the blog, but I haven't yet. In the meantime, here are some other pictures from tonight. Any suggestions on how to comb a baby girl's hair?

9 Month Update

Molly had her 9 month check-up today. I can't believe she is 9 months old. That just seems so crazy. Only 3 months more and I won't have a baby anymore, but a 1 year old! Aaaaaahhh!!!

Here are the stats on her check-up.
Name: Molly
Height: 29.75 inches - 98 percentile
Weight: 20.1 lbs - 72 percentile
Head Size: 17.6 inches - 73 percentile

She's grown an inch and a half and gained three and a half pounds in the last three months. That's about 2.3 pounds per inch!

Other things worth mentioning:
Developmentally, Molly passed all of the questions Dr. Havlik asked. Some included, "Can she pass something from 1 hand to the other? Can she pick up an object between her thumb and index finger? Can she reach for something she wants?" He even took the tongue depressor out of her hand and put it in her sock. She immediately grabbed it out of her sock and kept playing with it. Dr. Havlik replied, "a problem solver!" The only questions Molly failed were about her mobility. She's perfectly content to be immobile. "Can she pull herself up to sitting? Can she crawl?" Um . . . no.

The only other thing that came out of the visit was the conclusion that Molly's ears are still infected and she needs to probably get tubes in her ears. Dr. Havlik said his criteria for tubes is 6 ear infections in 6 months. Today we got a prescription for Molly's 6th antibiotic since, I think, October. We have an appointment with an ear, nose, and throat specialist next week and depending on what he says, it seems likely that Molly will get tubes in her ears. Poor baby. She's really not that grumpy and as long as we keep her drugged, she sleeps ok (though she's woken up a lot more in the night for the last few weeks). Maybe she's just built up a tolerance to the ear pain. I don't know.

Here's a picture of the 9 month old. It was taken at West High tonight during another Ugly Betty Special. One more to go. At least we got to watch Tyrell Corbin (son of Ty Corbin) play tonight. He's really good and my mom said she thinks he's planning on playing at the Y. Too bad. Thanks to Willie's bucket at the end, Hunter at least got to 40 points. And, Willie had a great JV game ton

Elizza's Blessing

Hi, Molly here! My mom's a little slow on updating this blog, so I thought I better post something before another week passes. Last weekend we drove to Rigby, Idaho. We went there for my newest cousin Elizza's baby blessing. We left on Saturday afternoon. It was a pretty rough ride up there. My mom and dad were kind of dumb and let me have a nice long nap at home before we left. When they put me in the car, I was NOT tired and there was no way I was going to take a nap in the car for three and a half hours. So what did I do? Well, what did you expect me to do? I'm just little. I jabbered, then I cried, I threw toys, then I screamed, I pooped my pants, I threw up, then I screamed some more. It was lot's of fun!

Once we got there, I got to stay in my first motel room. It was nice. I had no idea what was going on, though, so I decided to stay up really late. I laid in my play pen, spitting and giggling in the dark until 11:30 or so before I went to sleep.

Anyway, here are some pictures. My dad didn't take his camera. I don't know why since he usually doesn't go anywhere without his camera, but I think he just didn't take it. Here are just a couple of pictures my dad took on his phone. One is me trying to figure out what silly faces my Grandpa is pulling. The other one is of Elizza.