the purpose of bullying is to gain power through fear

I saw this in the paper today and thought about the administration in the school.


Carolyn Hax: Being a bully is not the same as being funny
Carolyn Hax
Washington Post Writers Group
Posted: 08/15/2009 12:10:00 AM PDT

Q: I've just had a conversation with my husband, asking him not to make fun of me when I forget something. His reply was: "Poking fun is the basis of all humor. That's my sense of humor. Comedians do it all the time." I said comedians are not in relationships with the people they are making jokes about. He said again that's his sense of humor, and I should get used to it. What do you think?

A: Comedians poke fun all the time, yes, but so do bullies.

The purpose of comedy is to amuse and enlighten; the purpose of bullying is to gain power through fear. Bullies find your weak spots and press until you fall in line.

Comedians poke fun at themselves as well as others. Bullies pick only on others, and only on people they regard as unlikely to strike back.

So how is your husband usually — amusing, or cruel? People of integrity won't dismiss a loved one's pain, or defend their right to cause it.

If, on the other hand, context says you married a bully, and you're just waking up to it, then please talk to a trained professional about emotional abuse. A call to the National Domestic Violence Hotline, 800-799-SAFE, can get that process started.

strategies for presenting material they've already had (repeaters)

1. Learning Style Inventory
2. Begin review the first day. I do startups daily (quiz grade once a month) so I will use the state test problems as the daily starter.
3. Tutoring before school, during school, after school, Saturdays - whatever you can get the kids to attend and can fund. The person suggesting this had grants to pay for during school and Saturdays.
4. Pre-tests, differentiation, teacher collaboration. (I am collaborating by blogging and emailing).
5, Intensive review for the state test the 2 weeks before the test.
6. Teaching students how to take a test.
7. Using a different approach. I intend to use Discovering Algebra and focusing on what I consider to be the 2 main concepts: solving equations and graphing.
8. Teaching for mastery - either continuing to offer them retests as long as they redo the work or offering to bump the grade to a 90, 95, or 100 if they can earn an 85 (keeping them from settling for the just-passing score, which dooms them when they fail something. I don't know how to approach the brass with this but I can see that it might work.

OK - other suggestions?

Learning Styles

If you are looking for a learning styles test to give your students (and don't want one of the many, fantastic interactive ones) try http://www.businessballs.com/freepdfmaterials/free_multiple_intelligences_test_young_people.pdf

I find that most of my students are kinesthetic learnersm which surprised me.

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Contains coupons worth $20.

Unrealistic expectations

As a teacher, I understand that I have to set the bar high to get students to give the most (and grow) - but you cannot set it impossibly high. I encourage my students - but I cannot have the same expectations for each of them as they are not clones.

So why do administrators that we can give them the same results for each class, regardless of who is in the class?

Mr. Hulk called a math meeting yesterday to talk about the results of the state test scores. He singled out Basketweaving, the course I will be teaching this year. Basketweaving has been replaced with a standards based class (Gourd Water Carrier) last year, so there were no new Basketweaving students last year - and the class I have this year have already failed it twice.

Two years ago, the last time this was a new course, the pass rate was 32% (not good at all). Last year, with repeaters, the pass rate was 23%. Mr. Hulk announced that the scores need to improve this year. The people who pass the test are passing the course. I have the ones who cannot do either.

I am not going into this with a defeatist attitude. But I do not think it is unrealistic to realize I will fail more this year than I ever have. I hate that and am looking for ways to make them successful. How does it help me to have him tell my whole department that I have to increase the pass rate on a state test?

OK: the plan. I will be integrating activities from a hands on Basketweaving text. I am going to encourage them to take notes daily (the notes will be graded for a test grade which can replace their lowest test grade). I will model the note taking (using Cornell notes) daily and keep a copy in the room. I plan to do pretests for each unit (which will be similar to the unit test) and teach the portions they don't know. I am also going to put more focus on the main concepts and less on the minor ones. I also teach a lot of test taking strategies.

I was talking to a teacher in another area. He suggested looking for grants and running Saturday school to supplement their knowledge. (any ideas?)

Did I mention that it is a state requirement that they pass Basketweaving (or Gourd Water Carrier - which is harder) in order to graduate?

Any other ideas? Teaching strategies I should look into.

Now is the time

It is definitely a nervous tic. He said "now is the time" (well, not really, but his favorite phrase) 61 times in the course of out 6 hour meeting. He can go long stretches without saying it then - boom - 3 or 4 in a row.

Definitely made the meeting more interesting.


I had people around me counting as well!!

No surprises.

tomorrow tomorrow tomorrow

My car is loaded - but I don't know if I'll be able to put stuff in my room.

I'm sitting here thinking about setting up a Bingo game for tomorrow's meeting. I did that one trip to visit my parents - and my mom didn't disappoint. She hit every square we'd set up.

My principal has a pet phrase. At the last meeting I attended I started keeping track and he said the same phrase 10 times. (And I started keeping track during the meeting. It is a nervous tic.)

I can't say the phrase (he might even recognize that he says it but there is no way he is aware how often he says it) but I think I will at minimum count that. I wonder what else I can predict that he'll do.

I just want my keys and access to my room.