I’ve been busy.
Which should be a “no duh” as everyone is busy this time of year. But there’s the juggling of teaching new classes right now, and though the initial “how do we do this?” which marked the beginning of the school year without a director has faded, there’s still a great deal of work [...]
On November 4, Mr. Tom Matson posted the following on a blog entry. It was a brilliant thought, and I was rather hoping someone else would respond, but it appears not… so I thought I’d put the idea in the spotlight:
I would like to see a study committee organized, to explore the economics of moving [...]
At the height of the debate over the teacher’s contract, Dr. Dassau and Cheryl Kahn took questions on a local radio show. I know I’m going back a ways, all the way to September, but bear with me.
I didn’t catch all of the show, but a caller at the end stands out in my head. [...]
I’m discovering something new about blogging—it’s harder when things go well.
This is not to say that there are not many, many things to be improved. There are, but in any system, there are always (at least) two layers to deal with; the surface, and then the pillars which support it. I’ve been doing enough house [...]
NECAP tests are this week.
There are several different perspectives, several different reasons for my despite. Like many teachers, I hate state testing, though not just for the usual (although good) reasons. Like every other teacher, I hate losing a week of instructional time—we only get 180 days with the students to cover a lot of [...]
I’m taking a course at Keene State right now. LIke every teacher, I need to get a certain amount of hours every certification cycle to stay up to date. Like many teachers, I enjoy heading back into the classroom, I enjoy trading seats and being responsible for my own learning and not another’s.
The key phrase [...]
I broke up a fight Thursday afternoon.
This is hardly a common event at MRHS—which is why it bears mentioning—and in the eight years I’ve spent teaching, this is only the third.¹ Like the two other fights involving boys, it was in the “squaring off stage” I managed to interrupt it, which is rather typical.
There’s [...]
Communication.
We tend to think we do it when we don’t, and communicate things we don’t mean when we do open our mouths. This is probably the single biggest reason why I had a bologna sandwich for lunch today instead of a turkey one, but in the classroom, there’s a great deal more at stake.
It’s not [...]
There’s so very much to talk about.
None of it will be politics. For a brief moment, I want to forget politics—though it must be brief. The passing of the teacher’s contract was the stopping of arterial bleeding from the patient; there’s much left to be done. Yes, the patient is no longer gushing out on [...]
Sometimes there are no words:
Breakdown from the towns:
Yes No
Swanzey 1,078 458
Troy 203 174
Roxbury 52 15
Fitzwilliam 284 310
Richmond 167 172
Gilsum 97 69
Sullivan 83 117
Total 1964 1315
From the Sentinel:
Voters of the Monadnock Regional School District have passed a new teachers contract, according to Superintendent Kenneth R. Dassau.
Residents of [...]
The first few days of school are usually an indicator of how the year will go. A good start can make a world of difference—establishing good norms and the right tone means that problems won’t appear at all, or if they do, they’ll appear in muted form.¹
More than any year that I’ve seen, this has [...]
It’s always an amazing thing, getting back to school from the summer break.¹
Walking through the front doors of the high school, it becomes immediately clear how much the building and grounds, maintenance, and full-year staff do. The roof might still be crawling with men trying to finish before the school year starts, but Mr. Mitchell [...]
There’s a funny thing that happens when you talk to an educator who doesn’t know anything about MC2 and the fights in the district and the constant attacks. They get this weird look on their face like they’ve just seen the light itself, and then, I usually get asked, “What private school is this?”
I really [...]
Upward Bound, following general common sense and good practice, tries to schedule room for the parents. We know parental involvement means more success for students, and we know the more we involve the community in education the better students will do.
Most high schools do a pretty good job of making sure there’s no place for [...]
One of the things most familiar about Upward Bound (from a year at MC2) are the three-times-a-week two hour long meetings about the kids in the program.
There are 17 adults for sixty or so kids¹, and Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday afternoons are staff meetings from 2–4. This is a great deal like the Wednesday [...]
If I ever mention “summer school” again, remind me it’s a bad idea.
Well, summer school is not a bad idea, but working during the summer certainly is. Upward Bound is a great program, and I love the work I’m doing,¹ but I don’t think I’ve ever needed a vacation more than I have this summer. [...]
I hate having the wrong reaction to something. Laughing at a funeral, crying at a wedding—these are hints there’s a problem somewhere, that there’s an incongruity, a paradox we might not be aware of, but something there nonetheless.
I had that feeling watching several of my former students get their high school diploma from night school. [...]
Sixty-four years ago yesterday 73,000 Americans, many not much older than the young men and women who sit in my classroom, risked their lives to storm the beaches of Normandy. Roughly 10,000 became casualties, bleeding and dying so others might live in a world without the need for that kind of sacrifice.
I made that point, [...]
I love those little moments when something valuable from an academic standpoint is also valuable from the much more important viewpoint of making a happy human being.
The district goal for every student for this year was (is?) writing, and it’s been one of the things I’m most serious about as a teacher. Literature is important, [...]
Anyone taken a look at the weight room at MRHS?
I don’t know how it occurred, exactly¹—whether it was one gift, or the gift of many contributors— but the weight room at MRHS has been completely re-done. Walk in, and it’s an entirely different school; clean, modern, and high tech, and the feel of the place [...]
