Monday, April 12, 2010

C-SPAN Educator Conference


My favorite non-profit is at it again!

C-SPAN Classroom’s 2010 Summer Educators’ Conference July 12-13 in Washington, DC.


Twenty-five lucky teachers (6-12 grades) will be at C-SPAN’s headquarters in the heart of Washington, DC.

Airfare to Washington, two nights’ hotel stay (July 11 and July 12) and meals during the conference will be provided by C-SPAN (and registration is free!).

For more information go to their website. The application link is here too.

http://www.c-spanclassroom.org/Educator-Conferences.aspx


Apply! Go! Say Hi to Joanne Wheeler for me!

3x5 Cards and Elizabeth Green


In the recesses of my closets and my storage unit, I have my teaching boxes. I know you all have them; boxes of art supplies, books, math manipulatives, holiday/cultural exhibits, rock collections, etc. Well, I was searching through the boxes that held files, mostly files of former student work, but I came across a few 3x5 cards. I had 3x5 cards for every student where I wrote down dates and times of disruptive behavior.

Here are the highlights from 1992 from a student I'll call "Elizabeth".

Elizabeth Green
9/16 12:45 Fighting with Melissa in line
1:05 Drawing when told to put it away
2:15 Pulling arms into t-shirt and pulling t-shirt over her head
9/17 9:05 Running in the library
9:20 Running again after being told not to by librarian
9/21 10:05 Brought video game to school causing problems during Computer Lab
12:50 Gluing paper to her forehead
2:00 Walking around room with paint on a paper, dangling it in front of her and in other student's faces.
2:30 Putting torn up paper bits on Derrick's head.

Then another card for Elizabeth:

10/7 11:30 Kicking legs of desk
11:55 Stabbing George with a pencil and giving answers to assignment to Derrick
10/15 8:40 crumpling paper while I was giving directions
2:25 Drew with pen on Derrick's back
10/19 11:15 Calling Ricardo "Stupid"
1:15 Playing with ruler trying to hit Mark
1:40 Threw Crayon across the room

There are more, but at this point, I'm wondering whatever happened to Elizabeth Green?

Oh, wait, there's a letter I wrote to her parents also. Now I remember - they didn't believe their daughter could do anything wrong. I had to turn copies of these into my Principal.