Science is Boring

So says Stephen Batersby at New Scientist. For my own two cents, I don't think that science in general is boring. However, what Batersby seems to be pointing out is that much of science is very detailed, minute research that often-times will go no where. As Batersby points out:

Boredom, it seems, is very much in the eye of the beholder. Scientists at the top of their game rarely become jaded, possibly because it is only the most tenacious individuals who ever succeed in research. Those with shorter attention spans - and you may pass your own judgement on the New Scientist staff mentioned earlier - are soon weeded out.

I originally found out about this story on Education Policy Blog.

Lower Autism rate among Hispanics

This is apparently true in at least the state of Texas based upon a study done there recently. There is no telling why this is, but then again, there is no telling why children get Autism to begin with. A fascinating trend to keep an eye on.

My Top 11 Movies of the Decade (2000-2009)

If you can't tell, I am a movie buff, and this will no doubt be reflected in my blog. As I mentioned in my introduction to this blog, while I will primarily be writing about education and policy topics, I will not rule out talking about non-education/policy related subjects. This will include movies. While this list may be of no particular interest to anyone else who reads this blogs, I have none-the-less presented here my top movies of the decade. And yes, I did choose 11. Why? Because 10 just wasn't good enough.

11) Wall-E (2008)
10) The Corporation (2004)
9) The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)
8) The Dark Knight (2008)
7) Traffic (2000)
6) Children of Men (2006)
5) Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
4) Munich (2005)
3) Borat (2006)
2) There Will Be Blood (2007)
1) City of God (2003)





















I will probably do a top films of 2009 list as well, but, I will probably wait until around Oscar season until I have had the chance to see a few more films.

"Glengarry Glen Ross": 4th Grade Edition

Here is a funny post with Alec Baldwin's character doing his famous "Always Be Closing" speech to a 4th grade class doing a magazine subscription fundraiser. It also gives me an excuse to show the famous speech from the great movie below. It is truly one of the greatest monologues in the history of modern film. WARNING: lots of profanity in both versions.

The History and Problems with Teacher Unions in Special Education

This comes from KPS4Parents. I will say that I have heard a number of negative things about teacher unions, and understand the frustration many have with them. I proudly belong to the Kansas National Education Association (KNEA), and have no problems so far with how my local union represents itself. Nonetheless, I believe these issues should be discussed, and teachers should always keep an open mind to how unions effect the bigger picture of special education.

RIP: Kim Peek

Kim Peek was a savant: someone with severe developmental disabilities, who is actually quite brilliant in one or more areas. Kim was severely intellectually disabled, but could remember details massive amounts of details from books that he would read. He became famous because he was the influence for Dustin Hoffman's character in the award-winning movie Rain Man. Kim Peek was an extraordinary individual, indeed.

The video below I found from YouTube about Kim Peek. It appears to be from a British documentary, and gives some more detail on his life. It appears to be part of a series, which I haven't watched yet. Just type in "Kim Peek" into YouTube search engine and they should show up.

Obsolete Items

Huffington Post posts 12 items that have become obsolete in the past decade. Some items really are obsolete (dial-up internet, encyclopedias); some, I would argue, are on their way to becoming obsolete (landline phones, yellow pages); and some are actually still in wide usage (fax machines).

A couple of other quick points from this article:

-Since when did "calling" become obsolete? I know we have IM, text messaging, and other forms of instant communication, but come on.

-Classified ads are one of the items on this list. I recently taught my Vocational Skills class the importance of classified ads, and even had them do an activity where they decode the abbreviations from different classified ad samples. Next time I teach the class, I will probably focus more on using the internet to look for jobs.

The Decade's Biggest Education Ideas (according to Scholastic)

Overall, the list is pretty accurate, and Scholastic points out that just because some of these ideas are popular, doesn't mean that they are right. The list includes alternative teacher training programs, charter schools, and how technology has impacted education. One quibble with this list, however:

"Books Are The New Black"

Essentially, books like the Harry Potter series and The Da Vinci Code have gotten students interested in reading. I appreciate what these books have done for reading, but that is considered a big idea? People like reading popular books. Really? Kids reading books became popular in this decade? As one commenter from this post puts it:

"Not biased or anything, are we, Scholastic?"

What is my primary mission as a high school teacher?

This question comes right down to the Education Theory 101. A recent study heavily talked about in education circles showed that only 9% of high school teachers feel their primary function as a teacher is to prepare students for college. This study also showed that 48% of students and 42% of parents feel the primary purpose of high school is to prepare students for college. Needless to say, that is quite a contrast. There are plenty of other details in the study that are quite disheartening. Elona Hartjes has her own thoughts on her blog, Teacher At Risk that are often quite true for special education teachers at the high school (unfortunately).

As for the question stated in the title of this post, I would simply state that, on the whole, I am trying to prepare students to live healthy, happy, and productive lives in the post-secondary life. For most of my students, especially the ones on my case-load, college will not be an option because of their cognitive disabilities (MR, EMH, etc.) I am simply preparing them to be able support themselves and hold some type of job.

But for the other students I work with, I know the reality is that a great number of them will not be going to college (despite their potential). Some of these students have no interest in school, and are waiting to turn 18 so they can drop out. Some of these students come from a home life where education has never been a priority. For students with the mental capacities to handle college, I often find myself working my hardest just to make sure these kids understand the subject I help teach. I try to encourage high expectations where I can, but it isn't easy when the expectation our school has set is, essentially, just to get by.

This really does seem to be the expectation in our schools, especially for minority students and students from low SES homes. Instead of doing a better job of promoting college for these students, our school primarily focuses on not getting them to drop out, and passing state scores in reading and math. As important as those are, the expectation rarely goes above that for the "at-risk" students. For white kids from middle/upper class homes, college is the expectation. Those students that don't go to college are generally not interested in higher education. For others, it isn't always the case. We really should do a better job of the expectations we set in schools. Until then, I am going to keep on doing the job at hand the only way I know how.

Exceptional Individual Watch: Carol Greider, Ph.D.

One feature of this blog I would like to feature is an "Exceptional Individual Watch", where I feature someone prominent or accomplished who has some type of disability. I realize that individuals shouldn't be defined by their disabilities, and that an "exceptional individual" isn't just someone who has a disability. But I have already come into a number of students who are worried their options will be limited in life because they have a learning disability or cognitive disability.

Likewise, there is still the unfortunate perception (even amongst those in education) that individuals with disabilities and IEPs will not be able to go to college, become successful in something, or live independent lives. I know I was one of those individuals growing up who had teachers that didn't believe I would ever be able to go to college because I had Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD). I am writing this portion because I want student with special needs to have some people they can look at if they ever have doubts about their own potential. Likewise, I want to change the misconception among those who think that just because a student has an IEP, doesn't mean they can't go onto great success after high school.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention in my earlier posts, I was on an IEP pretty much the entire time I was in school due to my ADD. Perhaps that is why teaching special education was a natural fit for me. I will share more about my ADD and years as a special needs student in due time.

Anyways, the woman above is Dr. Carol Greider, a professor of Microbiology and Genetics at John Hopkins University. She recently won the Nobel Prize with two other individuals in Physiology and Medicine. In addition to being an accomplished scientist, Dr. Greider is an individual with the reading disability, dyslexia (more on dyslexia here).

As far as the name "Exceptional Individual Watch" goes, I am open to changing it, but will keep it this way until a better name comes along.

Professional Development and Blogging

As a first year special education teacher, updating and maintaining on a regular basis is not going to be an easy task. I cannot promise that I will be able to write something every day, but I hope to give relevant postings as much as possible.

One way to help post regularly is to have a good source of websites to go to for relevant information. But having good access to resources is not only important to me as a blogger. It is also important as a professional teacher who wants to continue to grow. I am finding more often than not in this job that it is too easy to slip into lazy routines and outdated methods of teaching. This is not to say there is anything wrong with "old school" methods to teaching. One of the most common phrases in teacher college is that "you don't have to reinvent the wheel".

But since society changes, students change, and thus, teachers need to change (transitive property in practical usage). Many teachers feel that there are way too many professional development activities they must go through. I understand the massive amount of time that PD takes up, but I tend to take a contrarian viewpoint in my profession. I believe a good teacher is always one that is looking for new ideas and ways to reach students. This is not only true of the education profession, but in any profession. In addition, because we are in the business of education, it only makes sense that our education is always ongoing. Teacher education never ends.

One good source I just found is a list of the "50 Best Blogs for Special Education Teachers", put out by OnlineUniversity.com. I have visited a few of these sites before, and look forward to perusing through the other sites.

Images of Winter

Although I am not an art aficionado, I love pictures of nature and different landscapes. Here are some images from Huffington Post of different winter photographs. The one above is my favorite.

By the way, I can already tell you that The Huffington Post will be linked to a lot on this blog.

Welcome!

Here is my first post on this new blog. This is not the first time I have tried out a new blog, and I don't want to spend too much time explaining who I am and what this blog is. But I feel I should do some explaining here in my first post.

First, let me give some background information about myself:

• I teach special education at a high school in Northeast Kansas. I work with students at both an adaptive level (Learning Disabilities, Attention Deficit Disorder, etc.) and a functional level (Intellectual Disabilities, Mentally Challenged, Autism). This is my first year of teaching.
• I live in Johnson County, KS with my lovely wife and our dog.
• Although I live in Jayhawk/KC Royals territory, I am originally from Central Missouri. Thus, I am fans of both the Missouri Tigers, and the St. Louis Cardinals.
• I am very liberal, some might say almost socialist, in my political views. I would prefer to think of myself as a "democratic socialist" if the "s" word has to be applied to me at all. I currently do not belong to any political party.
• Although I am a Christian, I would describe myself as a Unitarian Christian (although I don't currently have a regular church I attend).

I would like this to primarily be a blog about education and policy matters. Sometimes, posts will be about interesting articles I have found surfing the internet or doing research. Sometimes, they will reflect what is going on in my own professional career. And although this blog is primarily about education and policy, I will not rule out posting non-education items that reflect my interests. Above all, I want this blog to create a dialogue with web-surfers about topics and ideas pertaining to both education and non-education related issues. This requires not only me expressing my own views, but hearing the views of others in both comments on my posts and e-mail feedback. As I tell all of my students, teachers aides and co-workers, if you have any suggestions to help make this a better place to learn, please let me know. I crave feedback!