Teacher Do You Care- The Pete Chronicles

When a staff member who is assigned to my room cannot show up it creates a big hole. I am often told sorry I cannot come to your class someone else needs me more. When there is not enough staff I can usually handle it. Is it optimal no?

I did not have enough staff to cover the students that needed more assistance yesterday. In addition the administration had given me mandatory extra work to do which included hours of testing students. This meant I could not spend time with Pete. It was heartbreaking!



Pete did not understand why he was moved to a office with more supervision. He said he would be good. This was the heartbreak. I told him he was good; he was great. I tried to explain that I had so much work that I could not spend time with him.

I protested and stated the students would suffer with no avail.

This is how the system looses the good ones. The system wants the paper work done and unfortunately it is at the expense of student learning. This system is broke.

Teacher Do You Care- The Pete Chronicles

During spring break I sent my student Pete a postcard from the San Diego Aquarium.

It said: Hi Pete, I went to this cool aquarium in San Diego. I saw fish, eels, seahorses and a couple of leopard sharks. Hope you had a great spring break; see ya at school. Ms. J

Pete returned to school with two phenomenal days where he made it through the entire period without disrupting the class mostly independently.

On the second day the most amazing thing happened. At the end of the period Pete used his time he earned to talk to me. This time other students were present and listened to Pete’s story script. The other students were familiar with the story and Pete led a conversation about his script. How empowering! He proved a point to the students about a detail and the look of self-accomplishment was astounding!

Pete is a successful student.

Teacher Do You Care- The Pete Chronicles

Today, Pete got a D on a spelling test in another class and an F on last week’s test. He disrupted that class and was sent out several times. When Pete comes to my class, I check in with him to see how his morning went in his other classes. This morning, Pete told me about the poor spelling test. I asked him how he felt about getting a poor grade. He was stared to repeat the cartoon phrases he uses but he stopped to answer me. He said he did not feel good about it. I asked him if it was possible that he interrupted the class because he felt bad about the test. He listened. I reminded him about sharing his feelings and suggested he could share how he felt with his morning teacher. He was willing to do so.

When we went to see his teacher, Pete was nervous and started to repeat the cartoon phrase that brings him solace. I helped him stay clam and he told his teacher how he felt. His teacher quickly dismissed his feelings and gave him a motive of wanting to disrupt the class. Ouch!!! I asked Pete to walk away while I spoke to his teacher.



Do I blame this teacher? No, this teacher represents the cycle of overburden, untrained people. Where is the compassion for this boy?

Go where the love is Pete. He had another great day in my class! We worked on his spelling words together and he practiced expressing his feelings. I’m proud of him.

Teacher Do You Care?

A student in my class has been struggling over the last month. The student (I’ll call him Pete) yells out lines from a cartoon show, coughs excessively, and laughs in a hysterical cartoon voices during instruction. The other students’ educational progress is disrupted. The home teacher for the student tried a couple of things to try to help his behavior in my class. These interventions were not what I would have done and were just as disruptive as the behavior.

I refused the help offered from the other teacher and personally sat down to get to know Pete. I found out more about a young man who spends all of his home time alone. He’s no child; he is a teenager, and he needs interactions with others. He has no friends and no phone calls. His pal is television and the laughs it has to offer.
Pete has not disrupted my class since I took over his behavior problem. One day he was upset about being hot after a morning of PE and not receiving water after he asked once. We should teach him self-advocacy.



Another day he missed a planned activity because of his behavior and he felt bad about it. He does not share his feelings with others. We should teach him how to communicate his needs and desires.

On the last day of the week he was mad at his single mom. Sometimes when I work with students I know God is present because things will come out of my mouth that are inspirational and just what a kid needs to hear. That’s what happened in this situation.

I taught Pete about being grateful and expressing gratitude.
“Have you ever told Mom how much you appreciate everything she does?”
He said, “no.”
“I think you should try it tonight when she comes home,” I suggested.
“Have you ever told Mom you love her?”
“No,” he said.
“I think you should try that too,” I suggested.
Then I mirrored his experience back to him.
“Your mom works long hours, comes home, makes you dinner, makes sure you have a shower and gets you to bed. Those actions are love. Pete you are well taken care of and you are lucky.”



Pete nodded. I don’t know if he got it. I will encourage Pete to live in this world not the cartoon world he has created to connect. I care.

How many Pete’s are struggling in the educational system? If you notice a Pete in your life stop, listen and show you care.

Is Waiting for Superman a Big Business Ploy?

I’m not waiting for Superman. Waiting for Superman, Davis Guggenheim’s new educational film is presently receiving a media blitz. Guggenheim (the son of a documentary filmmaker) funded his film about the perils of the current educational system. In the film, Guggenheim, follows 5 students in their educational journey. According to the Waiting for Superman movie website, ”In spite of their rousing determination and grit, the shocking reality is that most of the film’s touching and funny cast of kids will be barred from a chance at what was once taken for granted: a great American education.” The film breaks up the educational problem into several sections of need: kids, teachers, administrators, unions, schools, states and the nation at large. Inevitably, these kids have one hope of receiving a good education, a lottery system to attend a better public school. The implication that a good education in America today can only take place through a lottery system for specialized schools is simply not true.

I appreciate the attention that the Guggenheim’s movie is giving to education reform, although I do not appreciate the big business media blitz to privatize education. Waiting for Superman is the metaphorical surfboard of big business stakeholders to privatize education for financial gains.

This powerful movement of policymakers superimposing structure to the educational system started back in the 1980s. Nicholas Lemann stated in a 1997 issue of Atlantic Monthly that in the 1980s “the idea of raising standards in public education emerged as a national cause.” In 1983 the National Council for Excellence in Education commissioned by the Reagan administration produced a report, A Nation at Risk. This report identified a national education crisis and recommended nationwide administration of standardized testing by states and the local educational systems. The use of the testing data was to better diagnose and evaluate student progress. “The view in the education world (was) that politicians never before tried to dictate specific teaching methods to this extent,”(Lemann, 1997).

With standardized testing came the creation of businesses to produce the books and products for the schools to utilize to accomplish their testing goals. Today, educational concerns are many. For over twenty-five years, big business has been riding on the backs of policymakers’ decisions in the field of education.

The standardized testing market is reportedly a $400 million to $700 million annual business that is largely controlled by three publishers (Harcourt Educational Measurement, CTB McGraw-Hill, and Riverside Publishing, a Houghton Mifflin company) and one scoring firm (NCS Pearson). A unified flow of substance and dollars runs directly from policymakers to textbook companies, leaving school districts with virtually no options. The few options available to districts for purchase and to teachers and students for use are dictated by the same policymakers and companies.

The great hope of America’s youth does not lie in privatizing the public school system, because that benefits the same big business conglomerates, not the students. Waiting for Superman and all of the attention it is receiving directly benefit the movement to privatize education.

In contrast, Race to Nowhere, a student-centered documentary, was made on a shoestring budget of $200,000 dollars. Director Vickie Abeles painted the picture of how today’s youth are struggling in the current system and how a collaborative effort of students, parents, teachers, administrators and community leaders is needed to problem-solve the needs of the today’s kids. The movement to privatize education does not directly benefit from such a collaborative approach.

The message of Race to Nowhere is not implying that a new private educational system is needed for kids to be healthy, happy and whole. The student-centered educational message of Race to Nowhere has been ignored by the media. An Internet search of Waiting for Superman yields 944,000 results, while a search of Race To Nowhere yields only 77,200 results. Why has Race to Nowhere gotten little to no attention from major media sources when compared to Waiting for Superman? It is simple; Waiting for Superman is a movie that has a villain and a quick fix provided big business, while Race to Nowhere calls for a collaborative movement of communities.

Big business will not make any money on students, parents, teachers, administrators and community leaders collaborating for a healthier happier educational system. A fear monger message of a poor kid in the Bronx that can not seem to receive an education unless a private system is created beats the path toward a money making venture.

I’m not waiting for Superman and neither is any kid in our country. What we are waiting for is a grassroots collaborative effort that really puts kids first instead of using them to fuel big business profits.

School Kids Can't Read!

“We’re not asking them to read nearly enough,” Ms. Pimentel said, an expert on English and reading standards who is a member of the National Assessment Governing Board that oversees the test that showed little to no growth in the area of reading.

Really? I am wondering how long Ms. Pimentel has been inside of the classroom teaching struggling readers. I have been in the classroom working with struggling learners and readers for 15 years. I don’t agree with Ms. Pimentel.

According to the New York Times, “The nation’s schoolchildren have made little or no progress in reading proficiency in recent years, according to results released Wednesday from the largest nationwide reading test. The scores continue a 17-year trend of sluggish achievement in reading that contrasts with substantial gains in mathematics during roughly the same period.”


As I watch students struggle in high school with decoding, vocabulary, comprehension, spelling and writing, a few things come to mind. Let’s take John, for instance he does not know how to spell words that are not phonic or words that you cannot sound out. Therefore, he is embarrassed about his spelling and does not write. How did he get like this? It’s not just lack of instruction or directions that cause this kind of remediation. I have said before that students need developmental, social emotional and physical support to learn. Where did we fall short for John? Somewhere down the road, John did not get what he needed to continue growing.


We have to get away from this one fix show of education. It is not a one trick pony it is a system. My friend told me the other day that the educational system is not to teach the mass but to offer what is offered. Whoever gets it gets it and whoever doesn’t doesn't. So, according to his logic the ones who did not get it recycle into no man’s land?

I say NO! Our children can learn if given the instruction, environment and developmental pieces necessary. I have done it and so can the next guy. Students will make gains if given what they need to learn.

We can continue to have another 17 year studies that does not tell us any causality or start using common sense to teach the child not he standard. If we do this students will improve because we will give them the needed support to improve.

"The World is coming to an end in 2012 so why should I work hard?"

“The world is coming to an end in 2012 so why should I work hard?http://www.sonypictures.com/movies/2012/ Well, that was quite a shocking statement to receive early in the morning. One of my female high school students made this statement in response to me inquiring about her plans after high school in June. It was a simple question; I did not expect an Armageddon prediction. At first, I had no idea what she was talking about. Then I took a step back. I often take a step back in the classroom setting as an educator of high school students. The middle class part of me that looks into the face of a “give me more generation” did not want to take a step back. The other part of me that is a patient teacher and caring soul instinctively knew this would be a chance to step closer to my student’s frank feelings and offer comfort when there was doubt. What a statement to make! It was obviously about fear of today, tomorrow and the hereafter.

I asked her to explain her point of view and she weaved a web of indecision and new aged fear as she spoke about the world ending, how much easier life would be as a male, and wanting the easy way out

At times like this, I want to weep. I want to weep for a generation that does not have anyone to talk to about life. I want to weep for young people who live in a culture of fear and the adrenaline rush of fear like it’s a new soft drink on the market. I want to weep for the lack of faith, adventure and fullness of just living life.

Instead of weeping, I smile and say, “It’s hard for all of us to grow up and be responsible”.
“I’m not talking about that”, she retorts.

“Actually you are talking about that”, I say gently.

“Making plans for the future, following through with the plans you make and learning to care for yourself is responsibility”, I said lightly because too much weight would cause her to disregard another you must listen statement.

This sunk in for a minute. I watched it saturate over her like a warm glass of milk easing down her throat.

“Fear of Tomorrow” was not included in today’s lesson plan. Change of game plan- so we discussed how she had the same opportunities as males and yes, in this world sometimes it is harder for women. Instead of squashing her fear, I symbolically held her thoughts as we worked them through one by one. After quite some discussion she implored, “If the world was coming to an end what would you do?”

“I would live my life”, I proclaimed. “I would not live in fear”. Her brown eyes bore through me like she was looking for the truth in my statement. I continued, “ I have lived for awhile now and the world was going to end in 1984, 1999 and then again in 2000. “So, 2012?” I shrugged,” I would live my life and enjoy myself.”

She thought for a minute. “You made it right?” her words filled the silence. I could not take this in at the time. It is rare that a teenager shares this kind of kudo with an adult. I am taken aback; she thinks I made it. She sees me as a success. This harden teenager that threatened to vandalize my car upon our first few meetings. This threat was a simplistic ploy to scare me away from getting to know her. This young women is the same fragile soul that told me, “I feel so bad I just want to live under the covers.” after a tragic shooting that left a friend dead. Hard expressions, frown lines and eyes of bewilderment often searched me for answers along with a “you don’t care”, “I don’t care” attitude of resentment for a life that hasn’t really started.

I see a sense of hope slowly build in her eyes. I knew my eyes lit up as
I said, “The world is your oyster. You can do anything you want. You can dream. You can travel. You can see other things. It is an exciting time of your life.”

Her faces seems like she is reasoning the possibility that she too can do it. Together we develop a plan to start walking toward her goals. To see if working in the field of veterinary services would suit her. With some persuasion, she’s planed to go to the pet store this week to ask for an application. If they are not hiring she is going to ask to volunteer so she can be around animals.

The bell rings and she stops at the door on her way out and looks at me.

“You are cool Ms. Johnson.” I smile. She has second thoughts, “I need a lot of guidance”, she admits. Your friend offered to go with you to the pet store I reminded her. She looked at her friend standing closed by and she asked for help. She asked for help.

I suppose that was the lesson for the day. Just ask for help..