Goodbye Poppa

I haven't shared this with very many people but a little over a week ago, on December 7th, my grandfather died. Ralph H. Silva was born on June 25, 1907 in California but everyone called him "Pops". When I was a kid I called him "Poppa". Pops was over 100 when he died and had been declining in health for several years. For the last several years I have been reflecting on his life and our relationship and it was only recently that I realized how much of an impact he had on me and my decision to become a teacher.

One of the things I remember most about him was that he never talked down to my sister and me. He never used that childish voice and mannerisms that so many adults use. I also realized that almost every time we were with him, he was teaching us something. He taught us how to tell when fruit was ripe, especially the strawberries he grew in his small garden. He showed us the proper recipe for filling a hummingbird feeder. One summer, he taught us how to make our own kites and pinwheels. He taught by example by recycling and caring about the environment. A few times he took us up into the mountains with his photography groups and showed us different plants, trees, birds, and animals. He loved the outdoors and capturing nature on film.

Most of my memories of my grandfather have him with a slight smile on his face as if he was the only one in on the joke. When he spoke to us, he would speak quietly and personally as if what he had to say was for us and no one else. He was kind and gentle. The last time I visited before he had to leave home for the skilled nursing facility, I told him about becoming a teacher. He said he was very proud of that decision and he gave me some advice about being a teacher and tricks for handling students. I use what he told me frequently. That was three years ago when he was 97.

My wife and I went to see him a little over a year ago to say goodbye. He was barely aware of what was going on around him and very weak. It was difficult seeing him like that. I always knew him to be very active, preferring to be outdoors. I try to forget that and think more about the tanned man who still walked quickly but frequently liked to sit and listen to the world around him. For me and everyone who knew him, there is a very large hole where he used to be. Growing up, no matter how often we moved, I knew that he was there on East 8th Avenue in Chico. He was the one piece of stability and permanence my entire life.

There will be no funeral or service for my grandfather. He didn't want it and would be very disappointed if we did. Instead, his ashes will be spread off the coast of Mendocino County in California near Fort Bragg. Its a beautiful place he loved very much. Its where my grandmother's ashes were spread almost 20 years ago. Its where they met and where my father spent much of his childhood. I'll visit someday when its not so painful. For now, I'll just try to live my life a little better and try to follow his example and find some way to honor his memory.

Goodbye Poppa. I'll miss you always.

Countdown to winter break begins

This is the last week of school for calendar year 2007. This week is going to be expecially challenging for me since I have all seniors. Keeping them focused and working is going to be a chore and I imagine that by the end of the week I'll have very few students. Some will be leaving early for break while I'm sure others will be hanging out with other teachers and their class parties. I'm thinking I might need to end this week with a quiz.....

Accepted to grad school

I received my acceptance from the University of Illinois Global Campus yesterday for the M.Ed program in e-learning. I'm really excited about getting back to academia and being a student again for a while. It's an 18 month program and my first class starts January 2nd. I have no doubt that this is going to be a lot of extra work but I'm looking forward to the challenge. Its also cool that I can related this to the kids who have received acceptance letters as well.

One more week until winter break and people are already starting to check out. Several students have already told me they're leaving early for break and many just lack any focus for what's going on. I'm feeling it a little too but I'm working really hard to keep some momentum going.

Applied to grad school

Over the last several months, I have been pondering if or when I should earn a master's degree. I finally decided that I should and recently I applied to a new program through the University of Illinois. It's called the "Global Campus" and is a distance learning program that offers an M.Ed with a concentration in e-learning. I'll be studying various types of educational technologies, developing technology-based curricula, learning styles, etc. It seems like a really cool program and if accepted I'll be part of the first cohort that starts in January. I'm pretty sure I'll be accepted. It will undoubtedly be a lot more work but my schedule is lightening up a little next semester so I think I'll be fine.

Some days you're the windshield, some days you're the bug

I have discovered that being a teacher is often the epitome of the proverbial roller coaster ride. There are some days when I question being a teacher in general and teaching in an urban public high school. Then there are the days when I am reminded why.

The past few days have been rough. We've had a number of fights in and around school and a teacher got hit yesterday. We have a high failure rate in our freshman class and 1/3 of my students are failing. I encountered a former student of mine begging for change recently. But just when things were as low as can be, my mood skyrocketed today.

Ermelinda, the captain of the debate team, called me this morngin to share the news that she has been awarded a full 4-year scholarship to Pomona College in California. It's the kind of news that brightens anyone's day and must be shared. I've already told several other teachers who know Ermelinda and it's one of those occasions that makes me smack my forehead and say, "that's why you do this you dummy".

You're going to MAKE us type?!?!

Today I officially become a monster to my students. Today I inform them that they will be required to type all papers for my classes and that said papers must follow a specific format. Come on everyone... you know it... 1" margins 12 pt font double-spaced first line indented. Its the way millions of college students type papers every day. Millions of other high school students as well as I'm sure 3rd graders at this point. Its amazing to be how much resistance I have been getting from my students when I encourage them to type.

I know, I know, not all of them have computers at home but that's a lame excuse. There's nothing that says they can't write their papers by hand at home and then type the papers when they get to school. Our library opens at 7:00 am most days when I get here. It stays open in the afternoon until at least 5:00 most days while I have debate practice. There's a network printer here too! I also reserve class time in the computer labs.

I think we've been too lenient on the typing issue for a long time. I think the number of students without a computer at home is actually very low. In an informal poll of my students, less than 10% are sans-PC. Several of my students already type their papers so I know it won't be too much trouble but there will be some resistance.

My fear is that next year some of these kids will be in a college history class and they'll hand in an hand-written paper with torn edges from where they ripped it out of a notebook and the professor will look at them and ask, "who was your history teacher in high school?"

Semper Gumby

Once upon a time, when I was but a young Marine, we had a phrase would use whenever things would suddenly change without warning. We would shrug our shoulders and say "Semper Gumby". For those not in the know, "semper" is Latin for always. "Gumby" is slang for flexible.

As many other teachers can attest, Semper Gumby is a phrase that fits nicely into school life and is embodied in what happened today. In our weekly department meeting, we were informed that the library (and my classroom) will be shut down effective 11/12 and that I will need to find a new place for my classes until the new year. I also have to pack up all my crap.

This did not come as a complete surprise; we were told that there were plans to remodel the library some time ago. Apparently though, those plans were further along than we thought. Though I would have preferred for this to happen over the summer, the library does need to be remodeled. We need new books, better bookshelves, computer spaces, etc. I can't wait to see how it turns out.

Found a grad school program

So after a bit of searching, I think I found a grad school program. While looking into distance learning options, I found the new "Global Campus" of the University of Illinois. It's part of their program to create high-quality online education opportunities. The program I am interested will be an M.Ed. program with a concentration in e-learning. All told, it will be an 18 month program where I take 1 or 2 classes every 8 weeks. The classes combine traditional education curriculum with classes in educational technology, designing learning systems, and managing online classes.

I'm really excited by the idea of learning more about education technology and I'm hoping to bring more technology into my classes in the coming years. Who knows, in the future I might be able to have a part-time gig as an online teacher somewhere. This is the type of program I have been looking for though. It's not another history degree, its not designed for administration, and it might make me a better teacher.

College questions Part II

So I started talking to some of my students about getting ready for college. We were discussing some of the questions my students asked me on the ISU trip. As we were talking, I was telling them about some of the things I was going to help them with such as filling out a college application, applying for financial aid, etc. One of my students asks "how do you apply for college?" Several of my students laughed. I asked the class how many had not applied to any colleges yet and most raised their hands. I then asked, "how many of you know how to apply for college?" Only three raised their hands then.

So it seems things are as bad as I thought. I think many of them believe that all they have to do is show up somewhere and register for classes. It's going to be an uphill fight but I'm going to start recruiting other teachers to my cause. I want to see if we can start doing more as teachers to prepare them socially as well as academically for college. I don't know how successful we'll be but something needs to be done. We've been so wrapped up in ACT scores for so long we've forgotted about the other things.

Student trip to ISU

Today, I took 38 of our students, mostly seniors, to Illinois State University. Overall, it was a great trip. Everyone was well behaved, no one got lost, and the students seemed to enjoy thelmselves. As for me though, I am astounded by how uninformed our students are about college.

When we arrived at ISU, we pulled in behind another bus of students from another school. As we were walking up to the student union building, one of my students said she was going to hang back. I asked why and she replied, "because it's going to take them a while to get through security." I had to explain to her that there were no metal detectors on college campuses, or security checkpoints. Several other students expressed surprise by that. They've never been to school where there weren't metal detectors and guards at the door checking backpacks.

Later, when looking over freshmen orientation material, students were having a difficult time grasping the concept that they won't have the same classes every day and that they might have several hours in between classes. They also didn't seem to get that no one was going to be taking attendance every day and that they would be responsible for themselves in every way.

Similarly, towards the end of the day when we were in one of the academic buildings, one of my students asked me, "how come there aren't any bells? How do they know when classes are over?"

So many of my kids are coming from so deep a deficit about college, that I wonder how we can adequately prepare them. These kids are seniors and many still haven't applied to any colleges. Few, if any, of their family have attended college. Its incredibly frustrating but also makes me want to do more to help them prepare. I'll have to see what other teachers I can recruit to try and help.

Formal observation over but afternoon going nuts

So my formal observation with my Principal went very well today. I haven't had the post conference yet but the kids were very engaged in the activity and its a great project so I don't forsee any major objections. It was a great activity.

So since Murphy is in school today, my good day is looking shaky. I received a phone call from After School Matters that Maggie Daley is coming to visit my debate program this afternoon. That's right boys and girls, the Mayor's wife and founder of After School Matters wants to come check out my debate team today. It's supposed to be a surpise visit but ASM gave me a little heads up.

Just my luck to have the Principal and the Mayor's wife on the same day.

I'll get this right one of these days

So... I had a blog on my web site for a while. I ended up deleting it after it kept getting spammed every day. I kept having to delete things so I just git rid of it. Now I'm going to try again here on Blogger to see if I can keep it up.

We're already in week seven of this school year and things are getting pretty busy. I have several debate tournaments coming up, escorting kids to the Navy Pier College Fair this Saturday, taking another group of kids to ISU next week, and I'm being observed by my Principal tomorrow. Oh... I've got 35 kids on the debate team also this year.

My Latin American Studies class is getting ready to start an oral history project. This week, I'm going to teach them some basic interview techniques and conduct mock interviews. Tomorrow is the first mock interview session and Ms. Plascencia, the Principal, is coming for my first formal observation of the year. It's actually a great class she's coming to observe; they're a great bunch of kids.

This Saturday is the Navy Pier College Fair and I'm taking about 35-40 kids with a couple of other teachers. Our college counselor is on maternity leave so it somehow fell on us to arrange this. Fortunately, our principal agreed to pay for a bus so we can take these kids. Otherwise, it would be pretty difficult for some of them to go.

So... let's see how long I can keep this going this time. I really like the idea of keeping a blog, even if it's just for me.