Cow Pies in the Classroom

It has not been a very exciting time since my last posting. However, things do happen that keep life in the classroom interesting.

Two weeks ago we had student-led, parent conferences. I caught a chest cold and have been fighting it ever since. The six years I was out of teaching I think I had a total of two colds. Now I have one every fall and again every spring. I suspect the ninth graders are the source. They seem to have no concept of germs (bacteria) as they pass around water bottles and soda pop containers. Sometimes up to four different kids will drink out of one bottle.

I inherited the district’s greenhouse when I volunteered to teach Natural resources. This past week they hooked up two LPG tanks to supply heat. The horticulture teacher used to have the kids doing hanging baskets and vegetable plants. I will be using a different approach and teaching the kids how to do grafting of conifers and how to root conifer cuttings. We will do flower seedlings in the late winter. I want to have some things to sell for community day.

Community day is unique to Eatonville. The whole school closes at noon on or near May 1. Clubs and other school groups set up stands on the school property and sell various things to the public. The elementary schools provide students to do a Maypole dance. A fun time is had by all. We just have to watch for Middle School students coming onto the school grounds and causing problems with their immature behaviors.

Every once in a while something will happen in the classroom that can only take place in a rural school system. Two days ago I was doing a lesson in equation writing with my first period chemistry students when there was a slight commotion. One of the boys asked if I had a hose he could take outside. He was disappointed when I said no and that the outside faucets could only be turned on with a key. The students around him were waving at him and holding their noses. When I gave them a puzzled look, they told me that there was a very bad smell coming from the boy. He was upset over the commotion he was causing. It seems that he gets up every morning at 5:00 AM and does chores on the farm. This morning he was repairing some fencing around the cow pasture and walked through a number of cow pies (cow flops or poop). The excrement was all over his boots and part way up his pants. He had tracked it into my room (luckily I don’t have carpet) and was quite aromatic (for once my cold was helpful). I sent him outside to clean his boots, without much success. He finally went to the lavatory where he managed to get everything off and then wiped up the floor when he returned to class.

One of the other boys started to criticize him but shut up fast when I pointed out that getting dirty doing honest work is nothing to be ashamed of and getting up to do an hour or two of dirty work before school is something to be admired. I have a number of older students who are very hard workers outside of school. Sometimes they don’t see a need for the same amount of effort on their intellectual type of work.

We got the word this week that we have to plan ahead for sophomore and freshmen students who don’t pass the end-of-year science test for graduation. It will be given to biology students and administered through the state. The WASL was such a fiasco that the state has moved in this direction. Students who normally take just two years of science (the graduation requirement) must now pass this test. Since many of them will not pass it, we will have to figure some way to offer two or three more sections of a biological based science. They have to retake the test until they pass or they will not graduate, even if they pass the class. I hope the impact on our higher level classes is not severe but I am afraid there will be some negative impacts.

Two weeks until Christmas break. The last day of school is our Christmas assembly. It seems that a bunch of kids got together and for their Christmas wish want me and another teacher to sing a song at the assembly. I'll let you know how it goes.