Archive for September, 2008
LSC – Power to the People
I learned this week in LSC training that Chicago is the only major city where a parent-majority board evaluates, retains (or not) their principal, and selects a new principal when needed. In some ways it makes total sense that the local community decides who will run their local school. In other ways, its seems crazy to have hundreds of these small groups across the city reinventing the wheel over and over again when it comes to figuring out what makes a good SIPAAA (school strategic plan,) Budget, and Principal Evaluation.
Even stranger is the staggering of the LSC term with the school’s strategic plan. The SIPAAAs were all approved at the end of the last school year, around the same time as LSC elections. So each new LSC is working off a SIPAAA that the previous LSC approved (or even helped create.)
CPS provides training, but there is also a rogue parents rights group called PURE (Parents United for Responsible Education) who also provides training. I’d advise anyone who needs LSC training to check them out. They are a true “Power to the People” group, in a way that makes you look inside yourself and wonder why you haven’t stood up more often and shouted “WE WANT RESPECT!” Wanda, who leads the groups is a force to be reckoned with and apparently is well known (and sometimes despised) in CPS. She knows exactly what information parents have the right to see and she knows how to get it when all other efforts fail. Her motto is basically “why are people being paid $100K per year when Johnny doesn’t know how to read and write.” Well… good question. The million dollar question, actually. But unlike many of us who complain, avoid CPS, or just sit and blog about it, she is out there doing something about it. In a big way.
Some of my favorite tidbits from training:
- “I like a person with a big pile of data. It’s easier to send them to jail.” (joke)
- “The principal doesn’t have the paper you asked for, stop the meeting and tell them to go to their computer and get it (is that before or after I cower under the table?)
I can’t rave enough about this group. Schools in crisis should contact them. People needing LSC training should contact them. And Chicago parents should realize that the power really is in our hands. We just need to figure out how to harness it.
1 comment September 24, 2008
Yeahhhh, so the homework thing…
One of my concerns about my son entering a CPS Gifted Program was the homework. Edison and Bell are known to give copious amounts. The principal at our new school assured us that the CPS guideline is 15 minutes a night and she supported that. Well, that sounds like just a blip of time every evening.
So now, in fact, he does have homework virtually every night. Mercifully, it is given out in a weekly packet so parents can decide if they want to start good nightly habits or raise yet another generation of procrastinators who are trying to crank through the whole packet on Sunday nights.
Each assignment includes a few cute and appealing little worksheets that look as though they would take minutes to fill in. The challenge, of course, is keeping a Kindergartener focused enough to complete it. The challenge, of course, that makes me wonder how a teacher ever gets 27 5-year-olds to sit and do anything for more than 3 minutes. Clearly magic or witchcraft is involved.
Much of the homework involves writing, and perhaps the girls are more efficient, but getting a 5yo boy to write a whole page of letters is just slightly easier than convincing my dog to bring me breakfast in bed. The pauses, the wrong letters that spontaneously pop out of his pencil, the random drawing of a butt that needs to be made (“would my teacher think I was a jerk if I left that there?”) BTW, the universal butt symbol is a circle with a line going vertically down the center. It can easily be turned into an apple to disguise it. The gist is that these 2-4 little pages can end up taking freakin’ FOREVER to complete what with the goading, coercing, cajoling, slow writing, refocusing, doodling, etc.
Due to this, I actually had a homework nightmare this past week. I suspect it will replace the long-standing college stress dreams that I’ve had for 20 years. In the dream I had to turn in a kiddie homework assignment (yes, me) but somehow I couldn’t figure out the directions or what the teacher wanted. If this is starting in week 3 of Kindergarten, I’m looking at a lot of restless nights ahead.
3 comments September 23, 2008
Two Weeks of CPS
So…shocking as this may be for those who know me, I have no complaints yet. My son’s teacher is very sweet and good-natured, exactly they type of personality you hope for in a Kindergarten teacher. Inital chaos at the school has come under some control. My son is talking much more animatedly about school than he ever has before (mainly art, gym, computers, and science – but still.) When I emailed his teacher with some suggestions for our Open House evening, she was already on top of it all.
His enjoyment there has made the whole school-switching process more bearable for me (oh, and him too – guess that matters too.) Seems like most parents of Kindergarteners at any school say its going well, the kid is enjoying themself. I have to wonder if putting on a good Kindergarten is fairly easy. Throw in the “specials,” a snack, and some center time and you have a fun and progressive-seeming day. I was freaked out a bit when I overheard a mom near the school telling another mom that her daughter said “Kindergarten was fun – now it seems like we just sit at our desks and work all day.” Yes, I know the older they get, the more work they do. But I am SO hoping that it will continue to be made fun and engaging. I suspect THAT will be the challenge going forward.
But all in all, so far so good. With the exception of 2 comments I suspect I may not have heard had we stayed in private school:
“The first day the bathroom had a big pile of garbage. Like paper towels and used pull-ups.” Ewwwww!
“What we did in music class? Just marched in a circle the whole time.” Please tell me that is helping them learn some sort of school-related skill and was not how he’ll spend the typical music class. It could be death for his future dancing abilities.
1 comment September 15, 2008
The Facts of Life
OK, not school related, but the conversation did take place on the way to school last week after discussing how my son is a combination of mine and his Dad’s DNA:
Kid: But if I came out of YOU, then how do I have Dad’s DNA too?
Mom: Well, you’re a combination!
Kid: But how did the DNA get together?
Mom: Uh, heh heh, it’s kind of hard to explain, ha ha. I’ll tell you later, OK? Heh heh. (Nervous giggles starting.)
Kid: Pleaaaaase. Just tell me.
Mom: Well, heh heh, mumble mumble *woman* mumble *man* mumble *in love* mumble *kissing* mumble mumble *showing love for each other* mumble *liquid passes* (ack, that was a terrible descriptor) mumble *contains seeds* mumble mumble *seed and egg combine and grows into a baby.* Whew. I know that sounds a little weird, doesn’t it. You’ll understand it better when you’re older.
Kid: Should we try it at home?
Mom: Huhhhhh? Uh. What?
Kid: Combining a real egg and a seed. You know, like a hard-boiled egg and some plant seeds. And growing a baby!
Mom: (Snort) Well, it doesn’t really work with a real egg and seed. And besides, I don’t really want another baby (because I’d have to go through this whole conversation again in 5 years.)
3 comments September 9, 2008
5 Days Down, 1945 to Go
We’re 5 days into CPS and so far so good. In a totally out-of-character way, my son has said that he’s liked every day so far. What goes on in the classroom remains a bit of a mystery, but it seems to be enjoyable. He says its “fun,” – something he never said about his preschool. I suspect the teacher is easing them into school and once the real learning-time starts he may be less enthusiastic, but the tranisition is going well.
Morning drop of is a totally-IN-character experience with him getting weepy and clingly (as am I but I’m better at hiding it than he is.) There is something so heartbreaking about seeing these little kids crying as their parents leave (oh no, he wasn’t the only one.) The fact that they have no self-consciousness yet about crying at school or wanting their mommy or daddy makes you realize how young and vulnerable they are inside, which makes it that much harder to walk out.
I like the CPS environment a lot, although its exponentially more chaotic than our private school was (car drop off run with military-like precision, each kid and car assigned a number) but I think this is the kind of chaos I like. There’s a certain anonymity to chaos that I think will suit both my son and me better. Part of what “sold” him on the school was the promise of Freedom. The freedom to play on the playground after school because its a public school. And that ANYONE can play on the playground. And parents are ALLOWED in the classroom as volunteers. I may as well have been waving the American flag as I described the personal freedoms that would be enjoyed at his new school. Of course I didn’t mention the 8 million rules that will probably be enforced inside. I will let that unfold in due time.
Add comment September 5, 2008
Kindergarten Eve
So here it is… the night before Kindergarten starts. It feels simultaneously less momentous and more distressing than I’d envisioned. Suddenly I am not a huge fan of full-day Kindergarten. What on earth will they be doing with my baby for almost 6 hours?! Luckily my son doesn’t seem to realize that this is the “first day of the rest of his life” in terms of school, then work. Hey wait – Kindergarten isn’t actually required. I could home-school him for a year. Hey wait again. We’d drive each other nuts. Onward….
1 comment September 1, 2008
