Lessons to a School Teacher from Her Students

1. If you are not having fun, what are you doing?
2. Everything goes better with a good laugh.
3. Everyone deserves an I'm sorry or I understand.
4. If I give you a second chance, you will give me one too.
5. Laugh at mistakes and then set goals to do better.
6. Praise accomplishment, no matter how small.
7. Help me to understand because what I understand, I appreciate.
8. A thank you goes a long way.
9. If I care about you, you can tell.

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The OCR and Me

We are under review with The Office of Civil Rights and they chose one high school in our area to visit, and guess what high school they visited? Mine. And guess who they interviewed? Me, and few other key people at our school.

The interview was grueling. I sat all alone across from a lady from OCR and I had to sign official government papers saying my name was on file with the government and anything I said could and would be used against me and my school district if necessary. The interview lasted an entire hour and there were actually several questions I didn't have the answer to.

I was prepared to answer questions about ESL, ELL, BICS, CALPS, DELD, IEP, 504, IDLP, ect., but I didn't know all of the questions realted to ELLs with IEPs. I practiced what I preached and used all of my best how-to-gracefully-answer-questions-you-have-no-idea-the-answer-to skills I teach my students.

We will not know for a few more weeks whether we passed government review, but I did receive this feedback from our district specialist / liason with OCR: "She specifically said that you did a good job. She can tell that you have a good personality."

Well good. My personality has now been edorsed by a scary government lady. Thank you U.S.A.

Profundity

1. Favorite student question of the week: If you put a book in the oven and turn it up to 451 degrees will it spontaneously combust?

2. Favorite class discussion quote of the week: "We need not to be let alone. We need to be really bothered once in a while. How long is it since you were really bothered? About something important, about something real?" (52)

In our attempt to be entertained and worry-free are we ignoring the important, and our ability to influence change?