Mom Is Teaching

I had never heard the term sexting but the name kind of gives it away as to exactly what it involves.  In my mind, it was basically sending and receiving text messages that were lucid in nature.  I mean, how much worse could it be.  Well, let me tell you, it is much worse.  Our children, mine, yours, lots of children out there are taking part of sexting.

So, you give?  What is sexting?  Sexting is a way for children, teenagers, whatever the age to take a photo of themselves with their phone and then send it to their friends in a text message.  Oh, wait, the important part, this is a picture of them NAKED.  Oh my stars!

Can you imagine?  I can’t imagine sending someone a photo of me nude when I had a good body and that was well after I was past the teenage years.  I had such a poor body image that there was no way I was letting anyone see me naked and I certainly wasn’t sharing with the world.

Think about it, one text message with a nude photo attached and within 24 hours, an entire school, or an entire town (if you live in a town as small as I do) would have you right there on their phone…naked…naked as a jay bird!

I only have a couple of things left to say on this matter…1.  Child Pornography and 2.  see number 1 and know that it is a CRIME!

Please!

If you have children, chances are you’ve suffered from sleep deprivation at one time or another.  And, if you are like me, you enjoy reading books where parents spill their guts regarding their own problems. 

Anyway, if you would like to be part of a webcast held exclusively by mommy blogger Jennifer Waldburger, a pediatric sleep specialist and therapist.  She is the co-author of The Sleepers Condition.

So, go here and sign up and don’t forget, November 12 at 2 Eastern Time…we can always use some advice on sleep.

I have met some of the most awesome women since I started blogging.  In the last year I had basically withdrawn a bit because of our daycare ownership but as soon as it closed, I jumped back in with both feet.

There’s plenty of blogs that I know author and I’ll list them all for you at the bottom, but what I wanted to tell you was about the wonderful people I’ve met since becoming the author of Mom is Teaching.  My son started kindergarten the first week of August and I had no idea how much the people in the great blogosphere would mean to me.  No idea.

Anyway, one of the wonderful ladies as actually used some of my crazy writing to help make her point on the topic of Kindergarten Homework.  Please, by all means, go read it, go read it all. 

Here’s the links to all the blogs, just in case you are like me sitting around with a herniated disk and trying not to move….

Mom~E~Centric

Mom is Teaching

TV Boyfriends

Marital Talk

Mental and Emotional Health

The Reason for the Madness

Education Uncensored

Wentworth Miller

Life in Reality

A Crack ‘n Life

Ok, so a 13 year old kid is having problems.  His grades slipped, he was stealing money and skipping school.  He was addicted to his x-box game.  So, dad takes the x-box game away from him.  That was October 13th.  The kid got mad.  Really mad.

So, the kid gets on his bike and rides off.  And, he hasn’t returned.  They haven’t seen him since.  Even with big rewards being offered and Microsoft even offering a reward, no signs of the boy have come up.

Searches have included his online gaming friends as well as the neighborhood of course, but still, no 13 year old boy. 

Here’s the full story….what do you think?

Ready or not, here comes Halloween!

It’s fun to plan with your kids about what costumes they will be wearing this Halloween, but remember last year, when the fun wore off and your kids were bouncing all over the living room?

Most parents know that those bags of “loot” their children bring home are somehow linked to the bouncy days that follow. And many teachers will tell you that the day after Halloween is the wildest day of the year. (Perhaps this is why some schools schedule a “teacher’s workday for November 1^st.)

It’s typical to blame all that “sugar” the kids bring home for the overactivity that follows, but take a close look at those little wrappers, find the list of ingredients and see if they actually contain any sugar. Chances are, they are sweetened with corn syrup, especially high fructose corn syrup; few highly processed foods still use actual sugar. But as unhealthy as it is, even the high fructose corn syrup is not the likely cause.

Look at the labels again. Do you see the name of a color, followed by a number? Is there Red 40 or Yellow 5 or Blue 1, etc? These are the most likely culprits affecting your kids, not the sugar. If the candy also has aspartame (synthetic sweetener) or vanillin (the name for fake vanilla) they could be to blame as well.

So what is all this stuff? Red 40, etc., are names for artificial food colorings. They enable food companies to create things that appear to be made from food – but without having to use actual food. Food is expensive and chemical additives are cheap; need I say more?

Most of the food dyes used in the United States start out in petroleum refineries in China. They are “certified” which means that they are not supposed to have more than the allowed amounts of lead, mercury, arsenic and other toxins. You won’t see any mention of petroleum on the label, just the color and number following it. At one time there were dozens of dyes used in foods, but as their dangers became known, most of them were gradually banned from use in food, and now only a few survivors remain.

Those stubborn survivors have been found to cause many serious health problems, as well as to disrupt a child’s ability to behave, focus and learn. The most recent study, funded by the British government, found that a small amount of food dye and one preservative brought on symptoms of ADHD in the general population of children…not only those who had previously been diagnosed. As a result, parents in the UK are demanding, and getting foods that are dyed and flavored with natural ingredients. Major candy companies are offering natural versions of their products in Britain, but here in the US they continue to use the chemical additives.

Things are changing throughout Europe. The European Union has determined that foods which contain petroleum-based dyes will be required to carry warning labels stating that the additives can have an adverse effect on activity and attention in children.

The non-profit Feingold Association of the US has some suggestions for October 31^st, when the goblins come to your door. Check out the options at Trader Joe’s or Whole Foods. You should be able to find candies of all types that are naturally colored and flavored, and possibly candy that is sweetened with sugar instead of corn syrup.

You will probably be able to find Pearson’s Mint Patties at Wal-Mart. This is a small individually wrapped mint patty with a chocolate coating; it is an inexpensive candy with natural ingredients. Palmer Chocolates makes both natural and artificially-flavored chocolates, so check the ingredient labels carefully to avoid “vanillin” (fake vanilla).

Don’t overlook trinkets, balloons and stickers as an alternative to candy for the little ones. Their dentists will thank you.

When you take your kids out, be sure they have had a good meal so they aren’t hungry.

After the loot is collected, some families go through it and toss out the worst offenders. Others swap natural candies for the contraband; natural candies are now available in the natural food sections of most supermarkets. Some children swap the bag of loot for a desirable toy. And then there’s always the popular practice of buying the candy back from your kids. Mine still went out trick-or-treating even after they were too old to do so. They knew it wasn’t cool, but the income was good.

Check out http://www.feingold.org for more hints on how to be sure that Halloween doesn’t turn your children into monsters.

Jane Hersey

National Director

Feingold Association of the US

author of Why Can’t My Child Behave?

and Healthier Food for Busy People.

Our local paper keeps pretty close tabs on both educational systems in our area (both the county and the city).  And, as advertised, there will be a board meeting this afternoon.  One of the reasons for this meeting?  To discuss the fact that we have schools in our system who still do not meet AYP.

That drove me to go in search of my evaluation papers from when I taught biology in a school that was under evaluation and the two year probationary period to “fix” it.  I tried scanning them but you can’t see them, they were duplicates and I got the back page of 4 so hey are hard to read.  But, it was miserable.  Not just for me, but for the children.  Yes, the school had an enormous drop out rate, yes the school had a serious drug problem and yes, many students were struggling with the graduation exam.

But, miserable?  Yes.  The school system at that time operated on a block system.  That meant, for 96 minutes, each teacher had the same 25 to 30 children in a room and were expected to administer instruction for 96 minutes.  So what, that’s there job is what some of you are thinking, I know.

But, the fact of the matter is, 96 minutes is along time to give instructional material in biology.  The math teachers?  They loved it and the students in math did so much better with that system.  But, many other classes became a waste of time.  I saw many English Literature classes reduced to movies day after day.

However, once “the committee” which as I’ve mentioned before consisted of a group of retired teachers, arrived, everyone was under surveillance.  There was no way I could give 96 minutes of instruction in biology and expect the students to keep up.  Yes, the ones who were above average intelligence and the ones who were willing to work more at home could do it, but the general student, no way.

Within that 96 minutes, instruction was all that was allowed.  You could give a class room assignment as long as you continued to work through the assignment in an instructional manner.  In other words, you couldn’t give the assignment, wait 15 minutes on them to do it and then go back to reviewing it.  It basically wasn’t an in-class assignment at all.  It was more lecturing. 

Then, homework was expected to be assigned every night.  Friday night and holidays included.  The same evaluation form was used no matter what day of the week they came into your classroom and trust me, they came twice a week whether you liked it or not. 

One such example would be that the week of homecoming, “the committee” was in the school.  The schedule for the week had already been re-arranged numerous times to accommodate the fact that homecoming activities were getting in the way of instructional time.  However, I was the lucky one on one of these homecoming days in which the children would report to the class for that block, they would remain there for 15 minutes an then they were having some type of school wide activity. 

I was severely penalized and the information was turned into the administrators that I didn’t use the 15 minutes I was given for instructional time.  What I did in fact do was call roll (and you know, with the anticipation of a huge activity, how in the world?????), I asked for homework from the night before to be turned in (which again could not be reviewed out loud as a class activity as part of the instructional process) and I made that night’s homework assignment.  That probably took between 10 to 12 minutes of my 15 and I let them sit for the remaining 2 or 3 minutes.

I was penalized and turned into the administration.  Now, with the administration also being scrutinized heavily, they were kind enough to explain the situation to me and let it be. 

Might I add here that I was only there for one semester of the year while the regular teacher was out on maternity leave……why waste their time and money on me when they could have been working with the teachers that were going to be there year after year, semester and semester? 

I don’t know but I do know it has made me sick to my stomach just typing this out.  I am in on way saying that the schools that are failing don’t need to be managed and check out, but to the misery of everyone involved, it was ridiculous.  And, the thing about the whole process;  before it was over, the students knew that when that person from “the committee” was in the room, the class would be conducted differently and eventually would quit fighting it because all the teachers were making amends for it the other 3 days of the week.  How much help is that?

I’m not sure how many of you are part of the social network known as Twitter and/or Twitter Moms.  I am a participate in both and within the Twitter Moms group there are some men, but that’s not my point here. 

I’m getting way off topic with so much going on in my head.  My point is, there is a group over there, in which I am a member, even though I don’t homeschool, entitled Homeschooling TwitterMoms.  It appears to be a great group of women and men with some really good ideas. 

With that, Mom is Teaching, please meet Homeschooling TwitterMoms and Homeschooling TwitterMoms, this is Mom is Teaching.

Now, go forth and learn!

Get in and Hang On has some great links up it appears to me….my naked eye that is.

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I know that many times it seems I’m talking out both sides of my mouth.  And, the truth is, I do not, in many cases, have a concrete opinion.  I was raised in public school.  My father taught the entire 19 years of my life in public schools.  He was a huge advocate for public school workers (teachers, bus drivers, other support personnel, etc).  For me, public schools were number one and the only people who received homeschooling were either a)sick (either terminally or from a surgery; b) expelled from school for behavior or c) religious zealots.  So, understand that I still believed this until just recently. 

I don’t know how many of you know the in’s and out’s of why schools are pushing our children.  As I said recently, it isn’t one individual teacher, system or state that’s pushing, it is a push nationally.  And, with that, I’m going to go over into what is known as AYP or Adequate Yearly Progress.  Now, when this Accountability Report comes through, everyone is affected.

Holly sent me this yesterday and I didn’t address it  but the more I thought about it, I know I can lend some first hand information on this subject.  And, I think nearly everyone will be surprised.  Here’s her quote:

“Schools must meet AYP for each year…if they don’t then they must bring in all the people to help them meet the AYP and parents have the right to move their kid out of an school that doesn’t meet AYP.”

Before I tell you about a school that doesn’t meet the AYP Standards, let me tell you where I’m coming from with the state of affairs in schools where I live.  Only 83% of schools in Alabama meet AYP standards.  The following came out of the Birmingham News in August of this year.

“A report released this morning said 1,140 of 1,367 schools met all of the goals required under federal Adequate Yearly Progress standards.
Among those that did not meet the goals, 137 schools were identified as needing improvement. Of those 137 schools, 73 will be required to notify parents that their children may transfer to other schools within their school systems.

A school is identified as needing improvement when it fails for two years in a row to show improvement in the same category — such as graduation rate or attendance goals. “

 

In the county where I live, the general average falls from the 83% above to 80%.  There’s way more to that pie than I’ve given you here, but that’s a basic overview. 

The last time I taught in the public school system was in 2005 and I taught high school biology in a school that had not met the standards set in AYP and was labeled a Target Assistance School.  What this meant was, the teachers in the school were being evaluated by a team of “experts”* and given “better” methods than the ones that the teacher was using.

Now, first of all, I was the maternity leave teacher.  I was there 9 weeks (lady had 3 weeks extra that she had been donated by other employees from sick leave bank).  So, why they were, in my opinion, wasting their time continuing to hound me, I’m not sure.  When you take into consideration that I am not a biology highly qualified teacher, heck I’m not even a biology teacher (chemistry is where my minor is but I’m not certified in that either), I saw very little reason for them to be evaluating me when they could have been working with some other long-term teachers.  But they did.  And, it was not fun. 

I know that sounds like a child saying “but that’s no fun” or “it’s boring” but the fact of the matter is, all the teachers felt that way.  And, in my opinion, with good reason.  Basically, the “experts”* would come into your classroom and observe an entire block (which was 90 minutes - our school system no longer works on a block plan).  At the end of the block, the “expert”* would fill out an evaluation form on you, tell you what to change and where you needed to focus and then you had to sign off on it. 

Now, for some of you sitting there, you are thinking, well, good, accountability is good.  And, I agree, accountability is good.  But this method was like Chinese torture.  There were many facets of the evaluation, but one segment in particular read: Homework Assignments.

This “expert”* would go through your lesson plans and check your homework assignments, he/she would also evaluate your method of using the homework from the night before.  Basically, the form insisted that homework be given EVERY NIGHT.  The other part of the evaluation that is pertinent here is that this person would insist that you were involved in instruction the entire 90 minutes.  Students were not allowed to work on the homework assignment in class but you were also expected to give a class assignment that you worked through with individuals as they had questions.  FOR 90 MINUTES AND THEN HOMEWORK EVERY NIGHT. 

I’m going to cut this off here, but I’m going to get into this in detail in some of my thoughts on Sara Bennett and Nancy Kalish’s

The Case Against Homework because this very issue is something we’ve addressed here quite frequently lately and I hear it every day when I go to pick up my son.  Plus, I joined the crowd of homework haters yesterday when I saw that my kindergartner had homework.

*Experts - the experts were retired teachers that had been hired by an outside company to go into the schools twice a week and perform these evaluations.  These teachers had no more expertise than the ones in the classrooms with the exception of teachers like me and brand new teachers.  Many times you had an “expert” evaluating a teacher that had been teaching 5 to 8 years more than the expert.  Does this not sound a bit skewed to you?  And, who was paying for this?  The school system was footing the bill to this consultation firm who had hired these experts AND these experts were also drawing from their retirement.  Does any of this not strike you as odd? 

**I have my evaluation forms somewhere.  When I find them, I will scan one and post it for you to see.  They were on carbonless paper so I may have to work with it to make it readable, but I will do that soon.

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I received an email from Miss Jocelyn and she has asked me to announce the Homeschooler Seniors Blog.  And, so, ladies and gentleman, I give you, The Homeschooler Seniors Blog.

Our local paper did an article on my blogging.  I am not one to boast or brag about myself and I was perfectly content knowing that my information would be in the Lifestyles section of the paper yesterday. 

When word came through that the article would instead be front page of Monday’s paper, you know Labor Day, I almost threw up a little bit.  Wow!  I mean, it is Labor Day, right?  And, my article is about how I labor from home, right?  But, man….how fascinating is that?

And, I’m giving you the link, feel free to go check it out, as a matter of fact, I’d love it if you would go check it out.  And, if you have a minute to leave me some feedback, I would greatly appreciate it and I’m sure the writer of the article would as well.

So, I give you Carbon Hill mother makes money from blogging.

We are in Panama City  Beach, and Guido Gustav has been fairly friendly thus far…we just got here last night.  Today was great.  Gustav did make a turn back toward the East it seems and we will probably be cooped up inside all day tomorrow with a 3 and 5 year old as it appears the wave surge may make it into the pools even. 

But, no fear, because I found a Borders tonight that had The Case Against Homework by Sara Bennet and Nancy Kalish.  I’ve also been busy reading Stop the Homework.  Sara Bennet commented on this post of mine on Friday of last week, be sure to check it out as well.  I was so excited I almost pee’d my pants.  I’ve been reading The White Trash Mom  by Michelle Lamar and Molly Wendland and noticed today on the beach that I only have 50 pages or so to go….and I was like, oh no, find a bookstore…today!  And, I did, and I bought it and I’m so excited.

Please excuse me for cross-posting this all over the place.  It is that good!!!

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I am 100% dedicated to the fact that unacceptable behavior by children is from sleep deprivation.  I don’t know when exactly I made the decision that sleep deprivation was so horrible.  I’ve always loved to sleep.  I’ve had issues with insomnia and sleep apnea, but I love to sleep.  And, my body doesn’t function well without adequate sleep.  For that matter, few people function well when they are sleep deprived.

So, with that, I go back to my fact that children do not get enough sleep.  Many parents start at a very young age allowing their children to stay up late even though they  know the child won’t get adequate sleep before rising the next morning.

I’ll use this personal story as an example.  One of my cousins works swing shifts.  So, since the time his first child was born, the child and the mom slept on the same schedule with the father.  Then, when the child started to school, it was as if someone slapped them in the face.  The child has a horrible time with going to be early and rising early, even though my cousin and his wife made great strides and forced him, it really was a long battle.

And, any parent of a newborn will tell you that getting up and down all night with a baby leads to sleep deprivation and that in turns causes people to wear their clothes backwards (like I did yesterday) out in public, put the soap in the fridge and the cheese under the bathroom cabinet, etc. 

And, 2 of my daycare children belonged to a man that I knew really well.  And, I told him that I knew within the first 30 minutes of those children being in my daycare what time they went to bed the night before.  Of course he looked at me like I was a dork.  I didn’t mean I knew if they went to bed at 7 or 7:30 or 8.  I knew if they went to bed at 8 or 11 or worse, 12. 

When I wen through a sleep study was when I learned that I had sleep apnea.  With the help of a CPAP machine, I now sleep better.  But, in the initial test, I never entered the last stage of sleep.  They hooked my brain and body up to the computer and watched it all night.  I never made it to the restful stage of sleep.  That, obviously is a problem.

The man who did my test said that his daughter had sleep apnea and she had been tested at the Children’s Hospital in Birmingham.  She too, at the lovely age of 6, sleeps with a CPAP machine.  He said her behavior improved 10 fold when she was sleeping with her CPAP machine.

So, do your research, learn how many hours of sleep your child needs depending on their age.  I can almost guarantee that most of our children, even my own, don’t get adequate sleep.  So, if sleep deprivation makes adults wear their clothes backwards, it obviously affects children and their behaviors as well.  Aren’t you just a little more irritable when you don’t sleep well?

I found a chart, I’m going to try to add it here and link to it so you can see it for yourself.  So, check this out and tell me if you child gets enough sleep or not.

Just looking at this, my children do not get enough sleep.  We are experiencing a sleeping battle right now and instead of going to sleep by 7:30 like they should be, they are pushing and pushing and sometimes it is 8:30.  They don’t have to get up til 7 though and usually they both wake up before the alarm clock goes off.  Either way, I still believe their behavior would be better if they would give it up and go to sleep closer to 7:30.

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For everyone who claims that all home schooling families are crazy fundies who lock their kids in the basement and are secretly abusing them and using home school as a way to cover it up, I present you with exhibit A:

The school board of a small central Ohio community voted unanimously Friday to fire a teacher accused of preaching his Christian beliefs despite staff complaints and using a device to burn the image of a cross on students’ arms.

A science teacher burned crosses into his students arms in class. Oh but don’t worry, he’s been described as a great guy.

Freshwater’s friend Dave Daubenmire defended him.

“With the exception of the cross-burning episode. … I believe John Freshwater is teaching the values of the parents in the Mount Vernon school district,” he told The Columbus Dispatch for a story published Friday.

Oh sure, there was that one little lapse where he BURNED CROSSES INTO THE STUDENTS ARMS IN THE CLASSROOM. But other than that, he’s a great teacher. Certified in science, has been teaching it for 21 years, and taught his students creationism. For who knows how many years before they finally fired him.

The photo of the burn on one student is interesting. At first it seemed like maybe just skin discoloration in a pattern that happens to be cross-like. However if you look closely you can see the skin all around this is much paler white than the rest of the arm. It does resemble the skin after a sunburn and peeling.

The investigation is still going on, but if it is correct the guy clearly has some issues. Freshwater claims he burned X’s into their arms, not crosses. As if that excuses the fact that he burned anything at all into their arms period. I know this really is not a home school verses public school issue. I just like reminding the people who leave comments that get deleted immediately that being crazy is a human trait, not just a home schooling one.

*Edit to add another news article on this case here. This one has more detail about exactly what he was teaching his students in the school.

Eighth-graders who were taught by John Freshwater frequently had to be re-taught in high school what they were supposed to have learned in Freshwater’s class, according to outside investigators hired by the district.

For 11 years, other teachers in the school district and people in the community complained about Freshwater preaching his Christian beliefs in class and slamming scientific theories, a school administrator told investigators.

education, teacher, religion, news

Sunniemom has a great post up about “homeschooling for the right reasons.” It’s a great look at an article about home education in Montana that waxes on about those kids falling through the cracks when their parents pull them out over little things.

Let me just say I doubt many parents are jumping head first into home schooling their kids over a minor rift with their school. What they see as minor might just be the straw that broke the camel’s back, or happened when home education was already being planned and the timing is there, or might be a bigger issue to the parents than the school feels it is. For instance from the article:

some do it because of their kid’s poor grades in public school or other reactionary reasons.

Maybe it’s just me but I don’t see poor grades as a “reactionary reason”. At least not in the tone implied in the article, that parents are matching in upset and ripping their kids out over a C in gym class. Poor grades, or a failure to educate, can be a very good reason to attempt to teach your kids at home. If they are not getting a solid education at school and you feel that you can reach them in better ways then do it. Trying to find the best education for your kids does not seem reactionary to me, that’s just good parenting.

Sunniemom’s post is definitely worth reading so go check it out. It’s good food for thought. What are “good reasons” to home school? What is a valid reason for your family might be a mundane one for others, and vice verses.

homeschooling, home school, education, parents