Posts filed under ‘Random topics’
Home schooling done right
I know most of us don’t have the fortitude to home school our kids. I know I don’t. But IF I did, this is how I’d like to do it.
I read this article last summer in the Tribune about a mom who had home schooled her child since age 5. After reading the article I was left being very impressed with the mom who included things in her home school program such as “enrichment classes and lots of travel (they learned about Buddhism in Tibet, philosophy in Greeceand Taoism with an abbot atop China’s holiest mountain). Less exotic but equally important was immersion in Chicago’s rich arts scene.” Now THAT is a cool way to educate a child. It would take a lot of work to prepare school-work for a child all the way through high school.
The great achievement was that the girl had been accepted into Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Northwestern, and Stanford. Clearly impressive for any child, but especially a home-schooled one. Apparently when you don’t have “real” grades it’s hard for colleges to assess your application. In this case the mom prepared detailed course descriptions, transcripts from outside coursework, and recommendation letters from tutors. I get tired just reading about THAT part of the effort!
I met the mom this past year at a conference for parents of gifted students and it was funny because when SHE presented the story it was based a lot more on her daughter’s abilities (she says she is profoundly gifted) and desire to learn outside a traditional classroom. As I read the article again, it was clear that this was no ordinary child. She’s done things from teaching Shakespeare to youngsters to studying the harp in Ireland.
Whoever the driver of this feat was, it’s clear that the parents did everything they could to let the child’s passions and desire to learn blossom.
Reading it again this week, it totally shames me. I had intended to do a short learning time with my son every day this summer (and make him read something everyday – besides the Tivo listings.) I think it’s happened 3 times this summer. Maybe.
The whole article is here in the Chicago Tribune archives:
http://archives.chicagotribune.com/2008/apr/18/news/chi-homeschool_18apr18
Nettelhorst to march in Gay Pride Parade
Wow, this is pretty cool. Parents from the Nettelhorst Elem School have organized to march (with their kids) in the Gay Pride Parade this year. They’ll be the first school to march in the parade.
Nettelhorst is located in Lakeview near Broadway and Belmont in the heart of Chicago’s main gay community. Parents want to show support for the community and to help their kids realize that there are families of all types.
I think it’s a cool idea. Not sure how the parents will handle explaining some of the outfits they’re likely to see there that day but hey, a parade is always a good time. I took my son to the Andersonville Midsommerfest last year and he still refers to it as the “festival where all the guys had their shirts off.”
In any case, if you’re at the parade, make sure to cheer for the kids of Nettelhorst. They’re showing support for their school community which is a great thing.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-gay-pride-parade-25-jun25,0,3925455.story
UPDATE:
A note from Jacqueline Edelberg, author of How to Walk to School: Blueprint for a Neighborhood School Rennaisance (the story of Nettelhorst’s parent-lead transformation into a highly regarded neighborhood school.) www.howtowalktoschool.com
Nettelhorst would love you to walk with us on Sunday!!
The outpouring of support and encouragement from families of all flavors has been overwhelming. So far, over 100 parents, kids, and faculty members have RSVP’ed that we will march together in the Pride Parade and send a unified message of support to our neighborhood and our families.
This is history. Nettelhorst will be the very first school ever to march in Chicago’s parade. If you haven’t read them, some recent press articles do a fabulous job describing the spirit of what we’ve done together. We should all be proud…
Tribune: Chicago school to march in Pride Parade
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-gay-pride-parade-25-jun25,0,3925455.story
Sun-Times: East Lake View school’s straight parents line up with gays
http://www.suntimes.com/news/commentary/1622677,CST-EDT-edit15a.article
If you’d like to participate:
Date: Sunday, June 28
Time: 11:00-11:30 am
Place: Line up with the groups near the front of the parade on Clark Street at Barry in the east curb lane (by CVS). We’re #17.
Humor in the CPS Directory
I’ve been entertaining myself lately with the giant CPS directory that lists all the schools and their vital stats. (Lots of extra time without freelance work right now – if anyone reading this needs a marketing researcher, please get in touch!)Every year CPS puts out their Elementary and Pre-School Directory so that parents can “shop” for schools. These are available at the Library and I’d advise you to nab one now for next year, as this year’s model came out about 1 week before applications were due.This is a great book for looking at the hard data about schools (test scores, parent ratings.) It also has the map of each school district which is helpful if you’re trying to figure out where to live.Each school gets to submit a blurb that is printed at the top of their page. In theory, the school should use this as a chance to advertise themselves – to get prospective parents to stop and read more about the school. It’s like their “elevator pitch” if you will.Needless to say, many of them deserve to be publicly mocked. Some made me laugh, some puzzled me, and some made me wonder if they had delegated the job of writing the blurb to the school janitor. Read on…..
(Disclaimer: My comments in no way reflect anything about the school. My comments DO in every way reflect something about the blurb.)
(Final Note: As a feminist-type, I applaud CPS for having a decent number of schools named after women.)
OK, these make the school sound good:
Trumbull
At Trumbull, student achievement, enrichment, and fun all go together. We are proud of our enthusiastic and dedicated teaching staff, excellent standardized test scores, Literature and Writing Magnet Program, and many extracurricular activities.
West Pullman
West Pullman has a warm, friendly, and supportive atmosphere where staff, students, and parents put learning first.
Edgebrook
Edgebrook is a wonderful place to learn. Dedicated staff members provide high quality reading, math, and science programs. Social studies and fine arts are integrated throughout the curriculum. Our grade level history fairs have become a highlight of the year. Students achieve the highest academic standards. Strong parent and community support provides enrichment experiences for our students.
Hawthorne
Hawthorne Scholastic Academy provides a positive learning atmosphere for all students with a focus on reading and writing. We are proud of our long-standing tradition of academic excellence that has been a collaborative effort among all our stakeholders.
Schools my son would like based on their blurb:
Disney
Periodically, we see Mickey and Minnie Mouse running through the halls! This is a happy place where we believe that learning should be fun!
Kilmer
The first NASA Explorers School in Illinois.
Hanging their hat on one detail that doesn’t have much to do with actually educating kids:
Alcott
Our school has an Organic School Project — we serve all organic food for breakfast and lunch.
Avondale
The original Avondale School was built in 1881. The current building on Sawyer Avenue was built in 1894 and holds landmark status.
Cather
At Cather, we have two enclosed flower gardens that we nurture and develop, just as we nurture and develop our children.
Franklin
Franklin is the fifth oldest school in Chicago and opened when the city was just four years old. Find the plaque for the original building on Wells Street across from the campus park.
Volta
Volta alumni include: Florence Berman (owner, Super Dawg restaurant), Steve Goodman (City of New Orleans performer/composer), and Bob Sirott (TV personality).
Vanderpoel
Grammy-award winning hip hop artist Kanye West is a former student.
Ray
The school serves as the backdrop for the 57th Street Art Fair and Children’s Book Fair (Arne Duncan’s kids went here btw.)
A little too corny for my taste:
Canty
Where “can’t” is not part of the equation!
Lee
As a year-round school, we are like the Energizer Bunny, we just keep going and going and…
Are these schools as grumpy as they sound?
Brentano
Then people visit Brentano they always leave with a lasting impression. Brentano has a positive school climate conducive for learning. If you don’t believe it, come see us for yourselves.
Bontemps
Bontemps has an open door policy and invites anyone at anytime to visit providing they get a visitor’s pass from the office.
…and where students learn to use lots of adjectives!
Haugan
Haugan is a place where teachers are motivated, innovative and dedicated. Students are happy, ambitious, unique, genuine, accomplished and notable. In 2007, Haugan received an Exemplary Achievement Award from CPS for six years of consecutive gains on the ISAT.
OK, I know what they meant but one could interpret it in a slightly more creepy way:
Albany Park
Albany Park Multicultural Academy (APMA) has a very diverse student body that honors multiculturalism. The small school allows for personal relationships to develop between each student and staff member.
Locke
Locke School is more than just a school, it’s our home.
C’mon. ALL?
Dirksen
All Dirksen School children are academically successful.
A free school?! What a refreshing change from all those other CPS schools!
Drummond
Drummond School is a year-round small Montessori Magnet School-within-a-School that provides students and their families with an exemplary and progressive curriculum, at no cost.
Uh, your test scores would suggest otherwise:
Ericson
Where academic achievement is the only option.
Is this an elementary school or an exciting new loft development meant to attract yuppies?
Ogden
The Ogden Elementary School is a neighborhood school on the near north side of Chicago. Located in a rapidly redeveloping cosmopolitan city, Ogden Elementary School serves students from a racially, ethnically, and socio-economically diverse community. Nestled among some of the most prominent cultural, social, and business institutions in the world, we are committed to providing a world-class education.
Stating the obvious….
Davis
You can learn more about our school by visiting our school website at www.davisacademy.cps.k12.il.us.
Hughes
“A place where teaching and learning occurs!”
Motto that would be hardest to fit on a T-shirt:
Fuller
Our motto: “We are available 24 hours a day and eight days a week. Why eight days…? Because we go that extra mile!”
Taking a more philosophical approach:
Castellanos
Castellanos believes that educational change depends on what teachers do and think. It’s as simple and as complex as that.
Hale
Our motto: Learning is a cyclical inquiry action revolving through the stages of experience, accommodation, assimilation, memory, and transfer.
So I guess this means the cold war is over?
One thing I love about the Chicago schools is the great old buildings. Many of the north side schools were built around the turn of the century and have so much more character than the modern schools that are all over the suburbs. My son’s school has great woodwork, big windows, and lots of character.
At the begining of the school year I noticed this sign still up from what I assume was the 50′s? (I lack brain space for history so feel free to correct me.) I imagine that kids back then would do drills where they ran to the (supposedly) bomb-resistant parts of the school. Not sure where they crammed all those kids, but the current bomb shelter at our school also doubles as the teachers’ lounge.
I loved that quirky little sign. And now it’s gone. Darn, I should have tried to nab it for my basement.
Gender Differences in Learning and Play
I went to an interesting talk at my son’s school last night about differences in boys and girls in learning and play. The speakers were 2 academic PhD types who have read every book on the topic and also have a private practice in counseling little kids.
They began the session with a great story, excerpted I think from Raising Cain (one of the definitive books about how the education system is squelching boys’ natural exuberance and society kills their emotional side.) It was about a group of elementary school kids who were divided by gender for a woodworking activity and each side had to work together and decide whether they would build a bridge or a catapult. Girls typically chose bridge and boys always chose catapult. Then the girls got together in an organized fashion planning their bridge, discussing ideas, etc. (much like a business meeting I gather.) The boys, on the other hand, each went off on their own, slapping together ramshackle catapults with little planning or discussion, trying to out-catapult each other. They were more energetic and crazy and got madder and more frustrated, but soon the best catapults rose out of the rubble, then the boys would come together more, fine tune, share ideas, and ultimately a very fine catapult was build using the best ideas from the group.
But you can see where a teacher or parent would probably be telling the boys to work more like the girls and to pipe down, not goof around, etc. Yet the speakers pointed out that the boys took more risks and may have ended up with a better catapult than if they’d sat there and “ideated” for a while. So in the end, each side can learn from each other about ways to work as a team. She didn’t mention it, but I bet the boys tried to use the catapult to smash the girls’ bridge.
Some other points that they made that are good for parents to know included:
Just because your son plays with fake guns or is enamored of voilence doesn’t mean he will grow up to be a gang member, NRA member, prison guard, criminal, etc. He could just as easily be something peaceful (and make his mother proud.) As long as you keep reinforcing positive messages.
Just because your daughter is obessessed with princesses doesn’t mean she’ll grow up to be shallow fashion-loving bimbo. As long as you keep reinforcing positive messages.
Just because your teenage son acts homophobic doesn’t mean he will be so as an adult. As long as you keep reinforcing positive messages.
Young girls today are much more progressive in their thinking – they believe the world is their oyster, they can do anything, etc. But they will still likely revert to the typical old pre-teen/teen girl way of thinking that will make you want to cringe (caring about what the bitchy girls at school think, treating other meanly, seeking approval from the opposite sex, etc.) But they will emerge OK if you keep reinforcing positive messages.
Boys and men have a harder time multitasking than girls/women do. So when you are reinforcing your positive messages to boys, don’t do it while they are deeply involved in another task.
Reading disabilities in 1st an 2nd grade are no predictor of future academic success IF they are dealt with. Most can be corrected. BUT, if a child continues to 3rd grade and on and these reading problems haven’t been dealt with they will likely be behind for the rest of school.
The recommended a book called Boys & Girls by Vivan Gussin Paley, a teacher who explored the differences in play and words of her Kindergarten class one year.
When I read Raising Cain last year, I did get a big apprehensive about putting a boy into CPS where there are big classes that are harder to control and plenty of teacher who use the traditional techniques to keep the kids in line. So, plenty of opportunity for a rambunctious boy to be told he’s naughty. I have to see how this pans out. My son’s latent naughty side is now emerging so I may find out first hand how it is dealt with.
This morning I was relaying the story about the catapult experiment to my son. Of course he was interested in building the catapult and his main comment on the whole things was “But how BIG was the catapult?!” I guess I should have asked. Gender difference.
CPS Worries – Classroom Management
I imagine there will be more of these down the road, and maybe this first one is just a school thing and not specific to CPS, but here goes:
One thing that makes me crazy about the big classes is the time spent on classroom management. My son’s Kindergarten teacher is amazing – possibly one of the best he’ll have in CPS over the years. She knows all kinds of tricks to help prevent the kids from getting out of control and when a child has a particular problem she seems to work with the parents to set up a system that works for the child and that the parents are on board with. I’ve marveled repeatedly at how well-behaved the class is. But now that a few months have passed and the kids are buddying up, the talking and goofing off factor is growing. For the first time I was in the classroom in the mid-afternoon and the noise factor was crazy. The kids spend a good part of classroom time in centers where they sit at a table of 5-6 kids to work on a learning project. Which is how parents want it these days since the traditional all-kids-at-desks-facing-front classroom is totally frowned upon. The problem is, this system really relies on the kids teaching themselves or each other the materials. My son DOES seem to be learning a ton at school so it appears to be working, but man, it is SO hard to believe that in that loud, crazy, boisterous room they are learning math. The teacher works with one center at a time, yet has to keep her ears open for the tables that have veered off course (namely one child hogging all the dominoes and another one freaking out about it – typical 5yo behavior.)
A couple months ago I happened to be in the computer lab filing stuff while a kindergarten class was learning some basics on computer usage. The teacher was infinitely patient, but his talk was something like this “OK, let’s find the letter P. Who can find the P? OK, I need everyone to sit still and not talk. This side of the room is doing a very good job. If you get this finished you can have computer free time at the end. Did everyone find P? OK, someone over there may not get free time. Find the P. Quiet everyone. I need everyone to look at the keyboard and find the P. OK, now lets look for the B. But we need to ALL be quiet. And find the B.” This went on for a good 20 minutes and it took all the composure I had not to just blurt out “It’s PBSKids.org! Just type it in!” Or just walk around and show each kid individually which would have taken half the time. Honestly, it was torture to listen to. I have to keep reminding myself that part of being at school is learning how to act in a classroom setting and that keeping Kindergarten kids in line is like herding wild kangaroos. Or curious monkeys. Or bored cats. It just is bothersome when you think about how little times is probably spent each day on actual learning.
Today my son reported that “we didn’t do anything in art class except learn how to behave and what the rules are.” Damn, they only get art once a week. They have to spend the whole class session one week learning rules?! Its just seems like its sucking the joy out of school.
I sense that these are good teachers and I have to assume that a class of 27 kids needs a lot of “molding” so they don’t stage a rebellion, but these are the times I can’t help but be wistful for the smaller classes of a private school where I imagine that controlling the masses isn’t as big a part of the day.
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.)
Black Market Box Tops
One of the strangest things I’ve run across in my school involvement is related to the Box Tops for Education program. I run the program with minimal effort at our Neighborhood School. There is a whole web site devoted to this program where coordinators can share their ideas to increase participation. Some schools go hogwild, offering contests and prizes for the class or kid who bring in the most box tops.
I haven’t made this level of effort, although I did spring some cash to buy a giant collection box for the school office and some Box Top brand Ziploc bags for the kids to collect in. There are many lower-income families at the school who probably are not buying many name brand items and I don’t want to make any kid feel like they can’t have a fair shot at a contest. Actually, even I am buying fewer name brands these days now that I think about it.
I recently found out that people across the country are SELLING box tops that they save on ebay! They collect them and cut them neatly and sell for their face value or HIGHER! (That is 10 cents each.) OK, I guess I can see why people would sell them to get money, despite it being verboten by the Box Tops company. But why on earth would people BUY them?!?
According to the Box Tops message boards, people go on ebay to buy gobs of them to submit for these school contests so their kid can win the prize. Or so their kid isn’t the only loser in the class not submitting Box Tops. This is just too weird to comprehend. I don’t know whether I think its worse that the school puts enough pressure on parents to buy contraband Box Tops or that parents want to get an easy win for their kids.
Clearly I will never make it into the Box Top Coordinators hall of fame.
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