I Am Back and Primed For Another year

I don’t know if I have been missed but I have been on vacation from school and I was very busy at the end of last school year.


Today was a teacher work day at school. We always spend a couple of days before school begins doing things that are supposed to make us better teachers. I have been in the classroom for almost 40 years now and I have pretty much seen it all come and go and then come again. It is interesting how a new idea comes up to improve student achievement which on closer inspection is just a new packaging for something that has been done before.

At the end of last year the chemistry teacher at the high school was given a different schedule for this school year. Now I will be teaching two sections of chemistry, one section of physics, and two sections of natural resources (a course designed so a student can receive CTE or science credit). My CP Science 9 is now being taught by another teacher. I gave up the CP Science 9 in order to teach the chemistry.

The previous chemistry teacher did very few laboratories with her students. I believe chemistry needs extensive lab work to ensure an understanding of its basic concepts. This summer I spent a lot of time designing chemistry curriculum and have the basic course designed with the lectures and labs all prepared for the first semester. The basic plan is to do one lab each week to reinforce the topic covered in the weekly lecture/lesson.

Last year I was also involved with a group of teachers in designing a course about natural resources that met the requirements of a biological science course or a career technical education class. It is for ninth grade students who have problems passing a traditional science course. My goal is to show these students that there is some value in education and help them to be successful as high school students.

We also got some recent news that students in the state of Washington are scoring low in tenth and fifth grade high stakes exams. What a surprise! The state has been vascillating on this whole topic for years and gave an all new battery of tests last year. This reliance on standardized testing for high stakes is not only disrupting the educational process but is also helping to convince students that they are stupid.

Then throw in the Federal Government’s Race to Top money and how it is being applied to force Charter Schools into state programs through bribery and I begin to wonder if the people in charge care more for the kids across the country or their own political careers. If charter schools are so great, then why not let public schools operate under the same conditions. Besides, how does filtering off the best students from the public schools help them become better?

The Race to the Top money is also being used to force more teacher accountability into the educational system. The problem is coming up with a way to do a fair evaluation of a teacher, Right now a clunky due process procedure has to be followed that depends upon the competency of the principal. Letting student testing play a role is ludricrous as is any other method that could turn things into a popularity contest. I'll talk more about this in a later blog.

As usual it is time to dump the blame on the teachers, create assinine simplistic fixes to our educational system, and then compare us to other educational systems around the world that do not even attempt to educate everyone in a well rounded educational program that includes the fine arts, athletics, and academics.


I should have lots to talk about this year from the viewpoint of a science teacher who loves what he does and has little tolerance for anyone who uses his kids for their own advancement- be it at the local, state, or national level. Of course my main intent is to let my readers know what goes on in my classroom as I interact with my students but I will do some agitating from time to time.