"OMG, They're Beautiful!"

It happened. I really never 100% believed it would, but it really happened.

Our too-narrow, old, bent, fall-out-of-the-wall, graffitied lockers are gone.

They have been replaced by brand new, never-been-touched, blue beauties. They will even fit a backpack.

It’s been a long time since we had new lockers - I’d guess 25 or 30 years. And the purplish/red ones were just plain worn out.

A few years ago we had a long-term substitute who had attended the Bartlett. At the end of the year she taught here I was cleaning out some lockers, and I noticed her name written inside what had been her 8th grade locker.

Before that, and on two separate occasions, banks of lockers had somehow become detached from whatever holds them into the walls, and had come crashing down into the hallways. They were propped back into place and secured to the wall again, but I was always nervous having kids in the hallways near those two spots. 

The Bartlett Community Partnership School has been neglected for so long it just feels amazing to have a few of the basics that most other schools have. 

Your teachers have been asked not to slap stickers or labels on the lockers - we want to keep them looking new for a long, long time. You can help with that too. 

• Let’s work together to keep these lockers clean and fresh. 

• Let’s not use them as trash receptacles, let’s not store milk or unwanted fruit in them. 

• Let’s not slam them so loud the kids at the Stok can hear it.

Between the lockers, the new water fountains, the new entryway (not including dumpsters), a lot of fresh paint and some other things happening, our school is improving.

The Bartlett is comin’ back, baby, and you get to be part of it!

Speech Therapy

President Biden is a stutterer. He has worked hard to overcome his stuttering and sometimes when you watch him speaking in public, you can see him actively battling this disorder. He’s using his training right in front of us. 

Astronaut John Glenn was the first American to orbit the Earth. He went back to space again in his late seventies. He was an authentic American hero, but even heroes look up to others. John Glenn looked up to his wife, Annie. She was a stutterer and worked hard to overcome her speech issues to become a powerful pubic speaker. 

I too had speech therapy. When I entered school, my “R’s” sounded like “L’s.”  So, if I said “Let’s ride bikes,” it came out as “Let’s lide bikes.”

At school, I was embarrassed about how I spoke, so I rarely raised my hand or spoke in class. 

Reading in front of others was highly anxiety provoking - it was torture. During reading instruction, the whole class would sit in a circle and everyone would read one sentence. I remember counting the kids before me and trying to figure out what sentence I would have to read, so I could practice before it was my turn.

For the first few years of school, I was pulled out of class to do speech therapy. I hated it. I clearly remember the training my therapists gave me and also remember having to slow down my talking so I could put those techniques into practice. 

Eventually that training became second nature. 

It was all worth it. I got over my speech issues, became less shy, and participated in class regularly. It just took time and hard work. 

Our Stool Problem - A Brief History

As you may have noticed, we have a seating problem in the 7/8 science lab. 

Look down. What color is the stool are you sitting on?

If it’s a grey, metal stool, it was here when I arrived at Bartlett eight years ago. At that point, we had 24 grey, metal stools  - exactly the right number. 

Unfortunately, many of them were broken. 

In the Fall of 2016, I worked out a deal with the welding shop at the Voke and they repaired about eight of them.

Since then, I have been repairing them myself. Look down at the grey stools - you may notice nuts and bolts holding the legs on. That’s my work. I continue to repair the ones that break…but there is a limit to what I can do.

Unfortunately, about six years ago, an ambitious custodian threw away about four of these stools that I had not yet had a chance to repair.  Also, one of the teachers that taught in this room while I was assigned to room 22 threw even more of them away.

If you are sitting on a white stool, you can thank my neighbor. She found four white stools on the side of the road in a pile of household items that were being discarded. She grabbed them and then gave them to me for the lab.

If you are sitting on a black stool, you can thank DonorsChoose and the people who support teachers. DonorsChoose is a non-profit organization that connects teachers who need supplies with people who want to support them. All the black stools were donated to us. We did lose one of those this year when it fell over and cracked. My repair was a failure and I had to discard it. 

If you're sitting at a lab bench in a standard desk chair, you are experiencing our problem: We don’t have enough stools any more. Some students who want to sit at the lab benches end up sitting in a standard desk chair and those are way too low to be used at the lab benches. 

This is a ridiculous problem to have.  

At a minimum, you ALL deserve a chance to sit at the lab benches on an appropriately sized chair or stool.  <sigh>

Nobody Wants to Look a Fool

I am a poor speller. 

There, I said it. 

There’s no hiding it now

I don’t know why, but I just do not have the knack for spelling. I know people who just seem to have an innate sense on how words are put together. I do not. I memorize words, look them up or get them wrong. 

Several years ago, I realized my poor penmanship is a result of my poor spelling. It came to me one day, that when I could not spell a word, I would smush the wrong letters together to hide my inability to spell. 

I still catch myself doing this sometimes. I think it’s such a deeply engrained habit, that I may never be able to stop. 

Yes, I know there are ways to learn how to spell. In high school I misspelled the word “necessary" on a paper and the teacher made me write it correctly 100 times. What a pain! But, I do know how to spell “necessary,” now.

A new pizza shop opened near me and for the life of me, I can not spell “Mediterranean” as in Mediterranean Pizza.

But, technology to the rescue! 

I’ve looked up the Mediterranean Pizza website or phone number so often (And that’s a whole different problem!), my phone and iPad just suggest it to me after typing the first three letters.

I now have so many ways of getting the spelling right, I don’t have to resort to hiding misspelled words - I just fix them!

“Hey Siri, spell Mediterranean.” I might say.

Or, I’ll google it. I often say “Half my google searches are for spelling” and it’s true.

If I’m typing, like now, the document will autocorrect my spelling or if I’m so far off that even the computer can’t figure out what I’m trying to write, it will at least give me a heads-up so I can google it.

Doing high quality work is important and spelling words correctly is part of that. Nobody wants to look a fool and spelling words correctly helps avoid that.

Reaching Out

One of my favorite things about the internet and social media is the ability to reach out to people who once would have been unreachable. 

Here’s what I’m talking about: Over the past several years I have made it a point to reach out to the people who’s videos I use in the classroom. I tell them how I use them and thank them for creating such great content. I have thanked The Amoeba Sisters, Danica McKellar, and Mary Poffenroth (The Punnett Square lady). 

Here’s the cool thing - they all have acknowledged my tweets and emails and seem to appreciate the thanks.

The internet and social media have made this much easier than it ever was. I frequently interact with scientists, writers on twitter. I’m amazed at how many of them are really quite accessible. 

Next time you come into my room, take a look at the little posters on the window of the books I

am reading or have read. You will notice once called I. Asimov. I am reading his memoir right now. He is considered one of the most important science fiction writers of all time. But, he wrote over 500 books on hundreds of different topics - fiction, non-fiction - you name it. 

A long time ago, I was doing a lot of freelance writing and wrote a letter to him asking for his advice on how to make writing my full-time job. I was stunned, when his reply showed up in my mailbox (This was long before email, the internet or social media existed).

I guess my message is, don’t be afraid to reach out to people - even if they are “important” or “famous,” you might be surprised.

PS While researching my own twitter account for this post, I noticed that the lead singer for one of my all-time favorite bands follows me!  Go figure.

Working with Music

If you have walked past my room while I am planning, you have probably noticed that I’m playing music. I have always loved music - a wide variety of genres and styles. 

When I was younger, I had an extensive collection of records. (Do you know what those are?) I had so many crates of 33rpm records that moving into and out of my dorm room at college was a chore - I had to make multiple trips up and down the stairs with the heavy crates. Records were very heavy.

Now, in the digital age, I have an extensive library of songs and albums. They are stored in the could and I can access them from all my devices. It helped that I worked at a radio station for a few years. Each night I would borrow a stack of CD’s. (Do you know what those are?) and rip them into my computer, then bring them back and borrow more.

I find listening to music helps me work - up to a point. When I really, really have to dig in and concentrate, I have to turn it off. For the most part, however, I’m happy to get my lessons planned, work copied, whiteboards updated, labs set-up and cleaned-up with music playing. 

In theory, I would love to allow you to listen to music while you work, but there are several things in the way.

First off, it’s against school rules. Just like wearing hats and hoodies in school, you are not allowed to listen to music while you work. Period.

Next, some of my students would spend more time looking for just the right song than they would spend actually doing their work. I have seen this happen with my own eyes. Clearly, this is not productive. 

Finally, some of your choices are, uhhhh, not appropriate for school. We can not condone you listing to profanity-laden, suggestive, or potentially violent songs in school. It’s just wrong. If the adults in your home let you listen to that, so be it. But, not in school on school devices. 

My suggestion, groove on your tunes while you’re doing homework…at home.

Heee’s Baaaack!

Well, here I am again, back in room 23 - the Science Lab. 

This marks the 8th year I’ve taught at Bartlett Community Partnership School. I taught in this room for my first five years, then, for reasons I still fail to comprehend, the administration moved me to room 22, around the corner. After two years, I’m back.

This is my 11th year writing this blog. If you scroll down far enough, you will discover I was writing this at two other schools I taught at before coming to the Bartlett. 

I write this blog for and to you, my students. 

This is my forum to write about my life as a teacher, a student and a person. Sometimes, I write to amuse. Sometimes, I write to inform. And, sometimes, I write to help my students put things into perspective.

I usually post to this blog on Sunday mornings - and no, not at 3:15 a.m. (the posting time is listed as Pacific Standard Time). I will post a link on google classroom, so you’ll get an email notification when there’s something new to read.

I hope you will find them interesting but you’ll all be the judge of that. Please read, share, comment, and talk to me about what I write.  

Post script: I’ll give a prize to the first person who can name the movie that is referenced (but not quoted) in the title of this post.