Back @ Work

We were back at work today. A little drained, a little sore, and a lot happy to be with our kids. I was just showered with cards, hugs and lots of smiles. You would have thought that I missed 2 weeks! It is pretty awesome to be at a school with so many kids that I care about and that care about me and my family.

Norma and I have such a unique experience because we both teach at our school and share in the lives of our students. It is so cool to be able to talk about our students at home and my wife totally understands. To share in their accomplishments and to also see how great kids today can be.

People tell me all the time that I am too optimistic about kids today. But, you should walk a mile in my shoes. To see the kind of passion, affection, and devotion our students have towards us is really something. I know I am a lucky husband, father and teacher. But, today I feel doubly lucky.

A few years ago I went to a funeral for a colleague who passed unexpectedly. It was just the most awesome thing to sit there and be a witness to the large crowds of people who came to pay their respects. He only had taught for 4 or 5 years in the community, but wow the number of kids, parents, and teachers that he had touched with his career. It is really an amazing thing. I wrote about it in this post in 2006: Why I Came Back to Teaching

I felt that same feeling today when students were generally worried about me and my family. One student wrote, "Mr. D I don't know what I would do without you." It really got to me. I know her story and I know how much she struggles at home. And I know she meant what she wrote.

Friday night I will be dancing at half time of the football game with one of our Patriettes - the dance team. They have a father-daughter dance each year. Two years ago I danced with one of my students and it was a really special thing to be able to stand in for her father who had passed away. Friday will be like that again for me. The student that asked me is very close with Norma and I and it will be great to be with her and celebrate her for the night. I know I am doing the dance with her for her... but I get so much out of it myself. It'll be so cool to see Aidan in the stands watching me out there. And I hope he realizes that I am doing it because I care about my students just like I care about him. (for my crazy night of dancing last time around - check out this post: Dancing )

I really downplayed everything about the accident today in class. But, the kids really wouldn't let me. They kept asking questions about Aidan, Mrs. D, and my car. On my board the quote of the day was, "Accidents Happen." - Mr. D.

It was a good day, although both of us are beat tired tonight. I don't think I realized how much this whole ordeal took out of me until we got home from school and ate dinner. Both of us felt like the bottom dropped out and we were exhausted.

Tomorrow we wake up and do it all over again. Thank goodness!

Mario Williams - ESPN Cover Shoot

What is McCain Thinking?

Interesting post here on What is McCain Thinking? His choice as VP? A former beauty contestant, very small town Alaskan mayor and two year Governor of the state of Alaska.

There are street signs in Wasilla with bullet holes in them. Wasilla has a population of about 5500 people, and 1979 occupied housing units. This is where your potential Vice President was two short years ago. Can you imagine her negotiating a nuclear non-proliferation treaty? Discussing foreign policy? Understanding non-Alaskan issues? Frankly, I don’t even know if she’s ever been out of the country. She may ‘get’ Alaska, but there are only a half a million people here. Don’t get me wrong….I love Alaska with all my heart. I’m just saying.

Wasilla is the town that Palin was mayor of just 2 years ago. She is in her 40s and will debate Obama's VP pick Biden, who has spent 40 years in government.

It is going to be interesting.

The "Troopergate" scandal for the Alaskan Gov was also most interesting in the link above. I'm sure we'll hear more than we want to about it!

Car Accident

Well, Thursday was a tough day. We left our house around 5:30pm and headed off to have Italian at a new place in Kingwood. We pulled out of our village and headed up a two lane street. There was a truck in the lane coming towards us and he suddenly turned left onto a side street and plowed right into us. Very scary.

There was nothing I could do. I slammed on the brakes as he hit us. It was almost simultaneous. He had no turn signal on. And there was just no indication in my mind that he would ever try that turn. After hitting us, he also rammed into a lady who was stopped at that street and about to turn onto the same lane we were traveling in. I immediately got out and checked on Norma and Aidan. He cried for about 10 or 15 minutes which we were panicking and worrying about him. Once he calmed down we realized he was fine. He had some strap marks across his chest and shoulders and that was it.

The car was totaled. My right front passenger side made impact first on his right front passenger side of his Chevy Truck. Again this just shows there was no way I could have avoided him. It's not like I clipped the end of the bed of his truck or something as he crossed into our lane.

Our car spun with the back end pulling around and into the lane he was coming from. It jerked us around pretty good. I know my middle back is aching because of that twist and torque. Norma injured her ankle, which probably struck and was pinned by my seat. She was seated behind me. Aidan was in the back in the passenger side. Believe me, we are so pleased with our car seat that protected Aidan: Britax Marathon - worth every penny.

Luckily for us there was a cop in the car behind the guy that plowed into us. He jumped out of the car after calling the accident in and reporting it. The guy who hit us in the truck looked at the officer and said, "I never saw them." The officer said, "How the hell could you NOT have seen them! What's wrong with you!" It was nice to not have to yell at anyone, he was doing a good job of it for me.

In a matter of minutes there were at least 20 neighbors around us. Lots of them said they heard the crash from their homes. One lady brought ice for Norma's ankle and water for all of us. The police arrived and took our statements. They explained that they issued a citation to the driver of the truck and they gave me the insurance information.

In 38 years I have NEVER had an accident. I know I have been lucky... but I am an excellent driver. Our car was paid off in January! That really, really sucks that we will now have a car payment.

Today was spent in the emergency clinic for about 3 hours getting checked out. Norma has bumps and bruises all over and a badly sprained ankle. She's limping pretty good on it... but I am trying to keep her from walking on it. I have back, shoulder, and neck pain. My left knee is also bugging me. So we know we'll have a few weeks of discomfort ahead of us.

After the doctor we brought on more pain by meeting with our insurance claims agent. She verified that the driver of the truck had insurance through All-State and that our claim should be against them since he was at fault. She said they would be contacting me. I've never gone through this before. But, I am tempted to get some type of lawyer. We can not afford to be screwed around here. Yet a lawyer could screw us in just as many ways.

At this point we are going to know the value of our car at retail - it's about $15,000 for a 2003 Honda Accord. So we'd like to get between 15 and 20 grand out of this to put towards a new car. I CAN NOT BELIEVE we have to buy a new car. At this point we are considering a Honda Civic. My Honda was really, really good to me. We'll also test drive and consider Saturn Aura. I would love to buy a hybrid Prius or something of that quality but it is so much more expensive. And we are teachers. It's not like I have a money tree growing out back.

It's been a crazy week. First week of school and I've already missed a day with my kids! We are counting our blessings though. We are all ok. Cars are "things" and people are important.

First 2 Days

First two days have been wonderful. Best first two days of a school year I've ever had. Love my classes, kids, schedule and new house. It's been awesome.

I'm beat tired though. Left the house at 6:15am today and got home at 8:45pm. I taught a class tonight for accelerated teaching certification. Great class. I presented mostly on Assessment for Learning.

The pictures here are from the first day of school. I'm wearing a tie that Norma and Aidan made for me for Father's Day last year. He used a crayola set with a white tie, colored the tie and she ironed it in. It is awesome. I got a BUNCH of great comments about it. It was cool to think of Aidan all day long.

Hillary Hit it Out of the Park

Wow. Great speech:

"Barack Obama is my candidate and he must be our next President." "You haven't worked so hard over the last 18 months, or endured the last eight years, to suffer through more failed leadership," Clinton said. "No way. No how. No McCain."

Great job. I feel like the party is coming together. Bill tomorrow night... Barack from Mile High on Thursday. I am ready!

The Year Begins Tomorrow!

On Saturday Norma and I went up to the school and we finished getting our classrooms in order. I also shot some video and pictures for my first day video on rules and expectations. Instead of standing there like Charlie Brown's Teacher... I show the video and let the kids think a little about how the room is arranged and what my expectations for the year are.

I can't wait for tomorrow. Should be fun.


Welcome to 2605 - Mr. Duez - 2008-2009 from fordee on Vimeo.

My classes are:
Senior Advisory (pass out schedules) 15 kids
1st period - planning
2nd period - 36 kids in World History Pre-AP (sophomores)
3rd period - 31 kids in World History Pre-AP
4th period - planning
5th period - 33 kids in World History Pre-AP
6th period - 31 kids in AVID II (sophomores, had most of them last year)
7th period - 18 kids in AVID I (freshmen, interviewed these kids for the program)

The 36 kids in 2nd period is a BIT MUCH. We'll see what happens. I have my fingers crossed that a few don't show up. But, the reality is that more will show up than are on the list. Our enrollment is through the room. The school is built for 3,200 kids. As of Friday afternoon it was 3,407. Ouch.

In World History Pre-AP I'll be handing out my parent letter and showing the video above. In AVID I plan on showing The Wizard of Oz (after my rules video) and having the kids write about the scene where the tornado comes and dumps Dorothy in the world of colorized munchkins. It is a writing exercise and I am asking them to reflect on their first day of high school (as freshmen) and how they have adjusted. Should be fun!

my beautiful wife.... boy am i lucky!
DD

This message was sent using the Picture and Video Messaging service from Verizon Wireless!

To learn how you can snap pictures and capture videos with your wireless phone visit www.verizonwireless.com/picture.

To play video messages sent to email, QuickTime� 6.5 or higher is required. Visit www.apple.com/quicktime/download to download the free player or upgrade your existing QuickTime� Player. Note: During the download process when asked to choose an installation type (Minimum, Recommended or Custom), select Minimum for faster download.

havin fun @ the pool. last day of summer!
DD

This message was sent using the Picture and Video Messaging service from Verizon Wireless!

To learn how you can snap pictures and capture videos with your wireless phone visit www.verizonwireless.com/picture.

To play video messages sent to email, QuickTime� 6.5 or higher is required. Visit www.apple.com/quicktime/download to download the free player or upgrade your existing QuickTime� Player. Note: During the download process when asked to choose an installation type (Minimum, Recommended or Custom), select Minimum for faster download.

Fantasy Draft, Biden, and My Classroom

What a wild day. I woke to a text message from Barack Obama. Joe Biden is his man for VP. I was very excited to start the day that way. I like Biden a lot. Blue-collar guy, great on foreign policy, and an attack dog type of guy. He will go after McCain/Bush. So I was wildly excited about that piece of news.

I went into school at 7am to work on my room. Unfortunately it wasn't open until 7:45. So I had a bit of an obstacle. But, it was ok. I rushed through what I had to do (put up posters, put away boxes, etc) and then raced home for our family fantasy football draft. Here's my squad:

The Tenacious D
Brett Favre, QB, NYJ
Andre Johnson, WR, HOU
Marques Colston, WR, NO
LaDanian Tomlinson, RB, SD
Reggie Bush, RB, NO
Antonio Gates, TE, SD
Deuce McAllister, RB, NO
Roddy White, WR, ATL
Julius Jones, RB, SEA
Kenny Watson, RB, CIN
Jay Cutler, QB, DEN
Patrick Crayton, WR, DAL
Owen Daniels, TE, HOU
Kevin Walter, WR, HOU
Bryant Johnson, WR, SF
Josh Brown, K, STL
Philadelphia Eagles D

I had the #1 pick and took LT. It's pretty much a slam dunk at this point in his career. I have a lot of talent, but a lot of injury questions. I tried to build in depth as much as I could. One thing I didn't get that I usually do - rookie RBs. They went fast! Crazy.

Favre is listed first, but I took him pretty deep in the draft. I do think his numbers will be good in New York. But, I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Jay Cutler. I think he was my steal of the draft. (this statement will probably look dumb down the line! But, it is how I feel) Also, Reggie Bush in this league is VERY valuable. It's a receptions league. So everytime someone touches the ball they get a point. Reggie catches a ton of passes - so his value is higher than a normal league. I am optimistic. But, I'll be watching the injury news on these guys closely!

After the draft we went out for a salad and then darted back to school. Norma put the finishing touches on her room and I slaved in my room for about 4 more hours. One of the cool things that I was able to do is to take some video of Aidan talking about my classroom rules. I'll be putting that together tonight and tomorrow and I'll post it when it is finished. That is something I do the first week is show a video to explain the classroom procedures and rules. Much better than hearing me babble about it.



So I am going to work on the video and watch a bit of the Steelers-Vikes game. Then BED. I am tired. This has been a long week, but a very productive one. I don't believe I have ever been more excited about the beginning of a school year.

New Grading Policy II

I wanted to add the actual late work policy for Social Studies and the Reassessment Policy for our school to this blog. I know some teachers read it and might be interested. There is a lot of misconception about "No Zeros" and "Retesting." So seeing these parameters and policy notes might help some understand:

Social Studies Late Work Policy:

Intervention Process for Incomplete Assignments (WON’TS)

When a student is missing an assignment(s) on the due date, the teacher will warn the student it must be turned in at next class period.

If the student does not have the assignment during the next class period the teacher will set up a make up session with the student by filling out the top part of the intervention form. The top part of the intervention form will then be turned in to the house principal. (white copy) The teacher will then call/email the parent and tell them the about the make up session. The student will not come into the make up session with the work completed. Rather they will do the work with the teacher at that time and then turn it in.

If the student misses the make up session the teacher will fill out the bottom part of the intervention form and the student will be sent to the house principal. (yellow copy)

The HP will meet with the student, assign a D-hall, contact the parent, notify Wyatt Bingham, and confirm the HAC#.

The HP will give a copy of the D-Hall assignment to the teacher.

The HP will keep the yellow copy, staple the original white copy and D-Hall assignment to the yellow copy and file in student’s folder.

Once D-Hall is assigned the teacher will send missed assignment to D-Hall and the student will make up the work.

If they did not complete the assignment then a zero will be given.

A student, parent, teacher, and HP/HC conference will be held if WON’T behavior is continuous.

Reassessment Parameters
2008/2009
A set of parameters will guide the use of reassessment for these courses. These parameters create an equal opportunity for all students in these courses and will be utilized by all teachers in these courses. They were created with the input of the teachers who teach these courses. The parameters are as follows:

If students in Level Courses/Honors/PreAP Courses want an opportunity to be reassessed on a summative assessment:

1. Students must have completed the assignment(s) pertaining to the objective(s) or section(s) they want to reassess.

2. If the re-learning of non-mastered material does not occur in the classroom, students will have to attend an arranged time to be tutored or receive additional help on the non-mastered material.

3. Students have a deadline of one week to reassess after receiving the original graded assessment.

4. Students may be reassessed on the objective(s) they missed and in the modality of choice the teacher selects, i.e., a different test, oral defense, written modes, explanations, demonstrations, etc. Again, it is the responsibility of the student to attend the reassessment.

5. The student gets ONE reassessment opportunity. If the student shows improvement on the objective(s) or section(s) reassessed, points earned will be added to the original assessment grade with a CAP OF 85% on the grade.

AP/Dual Credit: At this time, reassessment opportunities will not occur because some assignments cannot be reassessed in certain courses due to College Board guidelines.

New Grading Policy

Today was an interesting day. Our school has come up with a new policy for late work. It is quite revolutionary to some. To others it just seems to make sense.

We are no longer going to allow students at our school to not turn in homework and take a zero with no consequences. Now students will have until the next class period to turn in the work. If that does not happen a tutorial session will be scheduled with the student/parent where the work will be done. Work can be done for up to full credit. But, it is at the teacher's descretion. I will be quizing the student once they hand in the work orally. This means they must have learned it all to get full credit.

If the student does not show up for the tutorial with the teacher to do the work, it is a discipline issue and they will have a referral written up to their principal. Students will then attend a school detention. The zero then will stand. This is called an Intervention Plan.

It is interesting. We are taking the approach that students must do the work. If they do not a heavy price is paid. If they do the work and show that they have learned the material they can score up to a 100 on those assignments. There is some give and take with the policy on both sides. Students are getting extra time and can still score up to 100%. Teachers are demanding that they actually learn the material and not just copy it.

Our Social Studies team was pretty much for this without exception. I was actually surprised how much everyone was down with it. But, we had a great guest speaker on Monday that discussed how damaging zeros are on averages and also how damaging it is for the learning process. I also discussed it some in my "Grading for Learning" presentation to the faculty this summer. So it was great to see the faculty and staff understand the new system and embrace it.

What message does a system like this send to our students? The work is very important. You must learn the material. Students sometimes say, "just give me the zero! Please???!" That is not going to happen anymore without them serving a dhall and having to sit with their principal and have an intervention.

We are also going to unveil a reassessment policy tomorrow. I believe (from what I am hearing) that it will be a system where students can retake tests or rewrite major papers one time for up to an 85 for the grade. This means a student could fail the test and then come in for tutoring, do all the homework, and then come back to retake the test. This also means that we are saying to our students, "It does not matter that you messed this up once... you must learn it."

Of course, some students may not chose to come in and retake the tests. Will students still fail? Sure. But, we are taking off the table the punishment factor of grades. Some students find that they are so afraid of failing that they just accept they will and self-defeat themselves. What this is saying to the kids is - we will work with you and continue to work with you until you learn the material. It is all about the learning.

I used this last spring and found some very good success with it. It removed my "Teacher Stare" over behaviors and focused me on what was important - Did the student learn what they needed to know today. That's the most important part of my job. Now what also comes with this is a different focus on classroom instruction. We will be doing a lot of formative assessment (non-graded and practice work) in class to build student confidence and assess where they are weak -- before we test. I found this was the most effective part of the system. I was able to diagnose at the end of a period much more clearly - did the student understand the material.

Taking it back a step is the fact that we are being VERY clear about our expected learning goals. I wrote my first chapter's target plan last night. I will share the link in this post at the end. If you check it out, you can see that it spells out to the student - This is what you need to be able to know, do, create, analyze, etc. My first chapter is very simple - "The First Humans." So this will be a great place to start the process for me. Hopefully it will help the students. I will be printing up a copy of this learning plan for each student and a copy will be on my website for them to download at home.

As we go through this semester, I'll keep you updated on how things are going. But, I have never been more excited about the start of a school year before. It is a very exciting time. I also hired my last AVID tutor today and I am totally pumped to have that all finished now. I got 4 great tutors to work every 6th and 7th period on Tue/Wed/Thu. My AVID students are going to love them. I also interviewed and pulled in two new AVID students today for my 7th period freshmen class and I'll be interviewing 2 more tomorrow. Very cool.

Check out my first Chapter Learning Plan here: Chapter 1: "The First Humans"