The End of the School Year..

It's hard to believe how quickly the end of the year is approaching - it feels like we're moving at warp speed! But even so it can't come quickly enough...everyone is exhausted, students, teachers, administration, and we're all ready for a break. One of my colleagues observed that people think summer break is a remnant of the industrial age school model, but that really by the time summer comes we're ALL ready for a break and we really need it. I have to agree; by now even my cutest kids are getting annoying!

But even "annoying" they are still amazing - today we made brownies in class (tomorrow we are holding a bake sale to raise money for Burma disaster relief) and they were so excited and mesmerized by the process. Every step of the recipe was greeted by clamors of "I want to see" and "Ewwww!!" (when we mixed the oil and sugar). But cutest of all was the egg cracking - the recipe called for 4 eggs, so 4 students got to crack eggs, and those students were both terrified and really excited (I guess 8 year-olds don't crack a lot of eggs, or any really). The first student to get up was one who often has trouble concentrating in class (she's a year younger than the other students) and is also often excluded (or maybe controlled? She is so eager to please them they don't treat her as an equal.) by the other kids. But when she took that egg and cracked it on the table faster than anyone expected, she drew a loud "Ohhhhhhh!" and a spontaneous round of applause! The smile on her face was priceless!

The brownie making today was prompted by my kids' request for the brownie recipe a few days ago when they asked what I was making for the bake sale tomorrow. When I said brownies, one girl wanted the recipe and as soon as I started writing it down the others wanted a copy too. BUT I absent-mindedly forgot that the American measuring system is different from what a lot of places use and wrote everything down in cups and teaspoons. WY came in yesterday and said she'd made the recipe. "How was it?!" I asked. She shrugged and smiled noncommittally. "Teacher what is a cup? Like the paper cups we use in the lunch room (which are probably about 1/3 to 1/2 of a cup)? My Mom thought there was too much sugar (the recipe called for 1 cup) so we used half the amount of a paper cup."

Which means they probably used about a quarter cup of sugar which must have been a total disaster! The bulk of the recipe is sugar! Oh well - live and learn.

Elite Korean Schools...

It's been a long time, but school goes on! With lots of excitement - most recently I had a student throw up in class (yesterday, poor girl, she said her stomach hurt and I made the appropriate "ooh" noises, and then asked if she wanted some water or to go to the secretary - there is no nurse - and she said no, and the next thing I know she's thrown up all over the floor! But my class was very good - no comments like "eeww...gross...smelly".), the librarian is leaving (making 6 teachers to go this year!), and my new boy has been enrolled for 16 days and missed 6 of them!

This article in the New York Times caught my eye, and a lot of other people's (it is the number one emailed article today). It certainly portrays a lot of what I've seen during my time in Asia.

Sex and Easy Teachers...

Just wanted to share these tidbits!

Last week as his students were coloring, the second grade teacher overheard one of his male students ask another, "Do you know what sex is?". He groaned inside, not the sex talk! "No, " said the other, "what is it?". Just before he could intervene he heard the first boy reply, "It's true love and hard to find!"

And yesterday one of my students called out "Teacher, you're easy!". I was just about to tell her not to say that when I realized I didn't want to have to explain why not!! So I just smiled weakly and said, "Thank you."

Loose tooth!

One of my students just had a tooth fall out during the Reading Comprehension section!!

Totally unphased, she brought it up, showed it to me, asked for a tissue and sat down to finish the test. Kids! So resilliant!

Just another day in the life of an elementary student.

As I'm sitting here while my kids take the Stanford Test, I'm reading some articles on education, and I've just come across one about test-based promotion in New York City which seems relevant to my school. The article explains the difference between social promotion, promoting a student to the next grade because he or she has finished the previous one, and test-based promotion, promoting a student to the next grade because he or she has passed a test based on the material from that year demonstrating comprehension. The idea behind test-based promotion is that it is better not to promote a student who has not mastered basic skills for his or her sake, and studies suggest that students improve when given more time to master the same skills rather than being thrown into the next grade.

I wonder if such a policy would be appropriate at a school like mine where the students enter the classroom with vastly diverse English language abilities and previous knowledge, given the range of schools they come from. Perhaps, instead of promoting students based on age and completion of previous grades we should test them on the basic skills we expect them to master in each grade and ensure that they have the foundation they need to continue on to the next grade.

Of course, you run into social and development problems as far as age goes, particularly in elementary school - the difference between my third graders and the one student in my class who should be in second grade is very clear. And there is certainly still a stigma attached to being "held back" that would have to be addressed somehow. And in the country where I am teaching, age is integral to the social hierarchy.

Testing!

This week my students are taking the Stanford tests - an American standardized test that is similar to the Iowa tests I took growing up in New Jersey, except that unlike the Iowas the Stanford tests are untimed. These tests are a challenge for my students for several reasons. First of all, almost all of my students are English Language Learners in a non-English immersion environment and so vocabulary, reading comprehension, grammar, and math word problems are very difficult for them. Second, many of the questions use very American concepts or vocabulary like "What shape is an alphabet block?" (my kids were trying to figure out what shape a block in the shape of an A would be) or "At what temperature does water freeze on the Fahrenhite scale?". Obviously these tests are American, so that makes sense, but I guess the question is why is this non-American school requiring the students to take these tests?

I'm assuming it has to do with WASC accredidation, as well as being used as a measure of progress, but I do wonder how accurate the results will be. Particularly because when my kids don't know the answers right away they tend to rush through and just pick an answer without really thinking it through. This puts me in a difficult position; should I emphasize the importance of the test to make them work more carefully or should I just let it go? They're only 8 years old, do they really need to be freaked out about a standardized test now? I think they'll have plenty of time for that in the future!

AND I got a new student yesterday! So this poor boy has to take the Stanford tests all week! Yesterday when we were doing vocabulary he looked at me and said, "Teacher, I don't think I've learned any of this!". Poor boy. Oh well, just do your best!

Not Working Together

On Thursday I wanted the students to work together on a science worksheet, so I made groups randomly (sometimes I let the students pick their groups, sometimes I assign them deliberately, and sometimes I choose them randomly). It just so happened that the two boys in the class ended up in the same group. I was making three groups of three, which meant that one girl had to work with the boys. And randomly the quietest, shyest girl ended up in their group!

I looked over and tears just started rolling down her cheeks! It was awful! I knew she wasn't being mean, she was just upset at being singled out. But what could I do?! I've made a big deal all year about how we all need to work with everyone.

And then all of a sudden, AM says, "I'll switch with you." I was so proud of her. It was a really mature thing to do. Now, technically I shouldn't have let them switch because the whole point is that they are supposed to work with each other, but I was so impressed with her offer and the other girl was clearly so incapable of pulling herself together (silent crying is the worst because you know it's not for show) that I let them. And everything went fine - in fact, it was the best group work they've done in a while! But I hate making my kids cry!