If time permits, do head over to Room 107 and read my latest post, Crab Salad. It’s been a heck of a week!

I’d also love a Stumble, review, Facebook link, or whatever for that blog if you enjoy it!

One of the things about teaching writing that can be very frustrating is that some students have dysgraphia, which can really hinder their writing speed. What this means, is that while other students have written a three page essay, your dysgraphic student is still sitting there with four lines on his paper. Dysgraphia is such an aggravating disorder for the student. Most kids who have it are very smart, and it can be so frustrating for them when they cannot put their thoughts down on paper. Fortunately, if the student has 504 modifications, you can request that technological assistance be available. Oftentimes, this means that the student can type on the computer rather than write things out by hand.

However, most students, especially those who are in elementary and middle school, cannot type! So what the modification is really doing is creating a new problem in place of the old one. Fortunately, new technological advances are being made all the time. Take a look at an alternative.

I am going to suggest the
Dragon Naturally Speaking software for student writing modifications. With this software, the student can speak into a microphone and the words will appear on the screen. This way, typing speed is no longer an issue. Of course, there is always the issue of people being able to speak much faster than they can type, anyway. If you don’t believe it, go take
Dragon’s typing speed test!

The thing about this software is that it can take students who were lagging behind the rest of the class, and make it possible for them to be competitive with the rest of the class. After all, writing is about sentence structure and ideas. It is an awful thing for a student’s ideas to be suppressed because of a disability. With this software, they can quite literally find their writing voice.

If you’re wondering what other people think about this product, check out
Dragon Reviews. I’m really excited about this product. I can’t wait to get my district on board with this! I can see all sorts of educational applications that are beyond the scope of this post. Just imagine!

In our Geography books, we reached the Middle East today. I expected it to be a section, but no, it’s a chapter. One chapter in a book that has 36 of them. So we wonder why no one seems to have a clue about the Middle East, do we? Needless to say, I’m going to extend this chapter for at least three weeks, which will still be an inadequate representation.

While we were talking about how the Israelites had pretty much relocated out of the area and then began to return in the 1800′s, one of the kids said, “So it’s like I got up out of my seat and then Jose sits there and I come back and say, ‘Hey, that’s my seat.’?”

That’s how it seems to me. I try my best not to express too many opinions so that the kids can form their own. That is HARD. At any rate, it’s fun teaching this group I have now.

My bullshit tolerance is especially low today. I am supposed to be in an ESL training today, all day, to teach us methods to use with ESL kids (English as a second language learners) in the classroom.

It does not matter that I have a M.Ed. in Bilingual and ESL. It does not matter that I have received awards for teaching ESL. The years of experience don’t matter. No one cares! And yes, they DO know.

I hit my limit after having to make a “little journal” out of a piece of construction paper on which to take notes for the day. The notes included things like the definition of ESL.

I tried to sneak out, but disappointingly, the door in the back was locked. Foiled. The other teachers sitting in the back snickered. They knew why it was locked. We’d all try to escape! So I had to walk out the same way I came in, increasing the possibility that my name will be marked off the sign in sheet.

I am so frustrated with the ESL thing on so many levels I can’t even write it all down. The last thing I will say about it is that the district is offering a $300 stipend (I know, big whoop) to teachers who go to a couple of workshops and then take the ESL certification test. Do I get a stipend? Hell no. It just makes no sense.

I don’t want to go to the training tomorrow either. It is the annual training on how to physically control violent kids. After getting hit in the neck last year trying this method, I am not doing it again. They can tear up the whole classroom, break windows, throw computers, whatever. There is not going to be a thing I can do about it other than getting on the radio and calling for help. That training is worthless unless you are in some hellish job where you get to practice it enough to actually be able to use it. Four of us couldn’t control that kid using those methods, and one of us was a former boxer.

I have a bad attitude. I could blame it on hormones, but perhaps the wacky hormones simply paint the world in more realistic colors at intervals so we don’t spend too much time looking at LOL cats and rotting our brains…I dunno.

I’m sure I’m set to make a grand impression for our new principal. I don’t care.

I talked to a teacher who just moved from the alt school to the high school. I called him a traitor, and he said he was sorry, but he just couldn’t stand sitting in a box another year. I know what he means.

I’d really love to feel excited about teaching again.

I’ve been putting off signing my contract for a few days–I can’t say that I know why. Our secretary called me today and told me that she’d like it if I stayed and would I please turn it in.

So I asked a kiddo to take it down for me. I said, “Take it to the office if you feel like it, and if you think I shouldn’t teach here next year, then just chuck it in the trash.”

He grabbed the papers and started out the door.

“Miz G, I hope it never happens, but if my brother ever comes here, I hope you’ll be his teacher. So I’m turning it in.”

Of course I wasn’t serious when I made that comment (I don’t think), but that was a nice thing for him to have said. Even if I was “fishing” a bit.

So, I’m in for another year.

So today, my intern brought sushi rolls to work. They were the real deal, not the California rolls I play around with. She had seen all of my kiddos try the wasabi sauce the other day, and today, she let them all try one of the rolls. I had one too. It was my first time, and I would have been ashamed not to try it when the kids were eating it! Mine was a tuna roll. It was delicious. I was surprised. The kids liked them okay, and two absolutely fell in love with it. So there’s a tiny spot of culture in my little corner of the educational world.

I’m getting three new kids on Monday. This is a relief, because I thought we were getting nine. The six other kids they were going to send were fighting. They decided to give them in-school suspension instead. I’m getting the kids who were caught smoking weed. You see, smoking weed is a much more dire offense than beating someone up. This is how it seems to go. Drugs are evil, fighting is just boys being boys.