Come To Our Art Museum

Friday has rolled around and I am beginning my "Art Museum" unit with the 2nd Period Graphic Arts and Web Design Class. This is the same lesson that Mr. Denise gave to the 3rd Period class back about two months ago. If you were reading at the time, it is the lesson which brought about the Dragon story.

Anyway, the kids are to design a website for an art museum. The art museum either has Renaissance, Western or Modern art. Kids get to pick which. During the course of the lesson, the students will be learning about website color selection, banners, animated menus, tables, photo galleries and templates. These things are all of the basic moneymaking tools that web designers use to impress their clients.

We started on the first lesson with a basic overview of the value of learning website design skills and then went through a role play, where the class was the website designer and I was the client. We started with colors and banners. Banners are the eye-catching graphic logos at the tops of websites that tell you where you are on the Internet. They put those together and then I had the kids switch one seat to the left and offer critiques to the designers.

Then, we talked about the different parts of the website, what pages might be needed on the site and so forth. The kids started their home page of the website using table to format their elements. They created a basic, boring menu. Then, the client indicates that they would like something a little fancier for their menu. I showed them how to create rollover buttons in Fireworks, our graphics program. Then the bell rang and it was time to go.

Things went pretty well for the most part. Usually, in a computer project, Mr. Jewett will give a basic skills lecture and then let the kids go. Today, the kids had to stick with the instruction step by step. It was hard for some kids, but most of them got it.

I Think That It Is Thursday...

But I am not sure. I have been mixed up on the days all week. It feels later than it is.

Today in 1st Period, we continued to do cleanup, relinking old projects, catching up on typing and so forth. We have about 1 and 1/2 weeks to go. The class is pretty well divided into two groups. Two-thirds of the class is all caught up and ready to move on to new stuff, one-third of the class is behind and needs work just to catch up.

I "circled up" with the caught up part of the class and talked with them about what they could work on. Three kids didn't want to work on Flash movie stuff, nobody really wanted to do any Dreamweaver website stuff. Everyone agreed that learning to do some new PowerPoint stuff would be ok. I dug into the curriculum for the "Computer Productions" class and decided that the kids could work on a Commercial. This is one of the first assignments for the Computer II class, they are to think of a product, real or imaginary, and create a 30-60 second PowerPoint commercial for it. The commercial has to run on its own and include graphics and sound. All of the kids seemed pretty excited about it, especially after I showed everyone how to record music from sites like "towerrecords.com."

P.S. The picture shown represents one of the most famous commercials of all time, the "1984" Apple Computer commercial. The Apple folks, being clever, have recently redone the commercial to celebrate their 20th anniversary. In the remake, they have digitally added an Apple iPod to the model's belt. You can see it in the picture. You can read more information and see the original and the remake through links here.

I Talk With Megan.

After school today, Megan Scott came into the North Fork Lab to pick up some printing. She is a History teacher and a member of Project Promise 13. She has always been very kind and supportive and willing to talk if I need it.

As I had just had the talk with Mr. Williams about H. and his continuing troubles and disruptions in the classroom, I needed a little talk about handling tough kids.

Megan was pretty helpful.

She pointed out that in her Project Promise, which had completely different instructors than my Project Promise, the students were continually drilled with the idea that if the teacher only cared enough or gave enough or loved enough, the student would always come around and become a model human being.

As we all know, and as Megan pointed out, sometimes, you can't reach every kid. Much like an alcoholic has to want to stop taking drinks and nobody else can make them do it, a kid needs to want to turn things around. A teacher can't "care" them into changing their attitude about school. If you can't reach that really tough and resistant kid, it doesn't mean that you are a failure.

Megan said that you try to touch the students that you can and teach the students that want to learn. Sometimes, however, you need to realize that you have done what you can and that you will be here in the future if the kid wants to talk or needs help, but that you aren't going to keep busting your butt for someone that doesn't care.

Mr. Denise calls them "Energy Sinks." Not "sync," as in synchronization, but "sink" as in "sinkhole." A place where energy goes, but never comes out. I think that, unfortunately, they exist and sometimes, they are in your classroom.

Things Come To A Head with H.

H. has been getting progressively worse. I had him today in 8th Period. In 8th Period, the students are working on making Flash games. These are fun little animation exercises like catch the bug, shoot the alien, find the treasure, stuff like that. H. has not been wanting to participate. He has not been doing anything in any of my classes for about 2 1/2 weeks. I have tried to work with him, getting him to do stuff, but he won't.

Mr. Jewett was in class for awhile this afternoon working on the computer. After about 5 minutes, he kicked H. out of class and sent him to the office, because he wouldn't sit down and wouldn't stop bothering other kids.

As soon as he left the room, the noise level dropped and kids started working.

Mr. Jewett said that I was much more patient than he was. He said that we needed to go talk with Mr. Williams, the principal, about our situation.

We caught up with Mr. Williams right after school and told him what was going on with H. He said that it was not us or our class, that he was doing this in almost every class and that he was spending most of his days in the office.

Mr. Williams said that the school had asked H.'s Grandparents to keep him at home for the balance of the semester (a week or two,) as he has become a completely disruptive force at the school. They have indicated that they cannot keep him at home at the moment, could CLP please keep him through the end of the semester, then transfer him to Mountain View at the start of the next quarter. (Mountain View, or TLC, is the alternative school in town for emotionally disabled or disruptive kids.)

I feel bad for H. and his situation. However, I cannot teach a classroom in which he is present. I have tried. It isn't working. He may be spending the rest of the semester in the office.

H.- Near the End of His Rope.

H.

H. is in two of my classes, 1st Period and 8th Period, as well as my study hall. I see him more than anyone else in school, about 2 1/2 hours per day. He is also one of the most difficult students in the school.

I have written extensively about H. before, but let me recap. H. has had a tough life, with a drug-using mother, no father and no discipline structure for much of his life. Recently, his mother abandoned him and left him with his Grandparents, where he now lives, along with his 15 year-old sister and her 1 year-old baby boy.

He is resentful of authority figures and has a hostile demeanor towards people in general. He is rather bright when he applies himself, but will only try in school if he is really interested in the project.

When H. is not given structure in the classroom or activities that hold his attention, he is very disruptive, to the point that the teacher cannot teach. He likes to rock in his chair, walk around the room, throw pencils into the ceiling, write on the board, make fun of other kids, etc.

He has a stack of referrals a mile high and has spent numerous days in ISS (In-School Suspension) or in the office.

I tried to make a deal with him about two months ago wherein he could work on any project that he might find interesting, as long as he remained engaged throughout the class period. In exchange for his participation, I would make sure that he passed my classes.

About two weeks ago, he was suspended for a week in ISS. Since his return to the classroom last week, he has been very difficult to manage. He has not been participating at all in any of the classroom activities. I have had to stand very close to him for much of the class to keep him from walking around. This has been very frustrating.

Today in class, H. did not spend any time at his computer at all, but was out of his chair constantly, talking to other kids, poking other kids, writing on the board, stuff like that. About halfway through the class, a student was standing near H.'s computer, facing the other way. H. calculated the proper distances and kicked him right behind the kneecap, making him almost fall down. I saw the end of this and told H. that I was going to have to write him a referral.

He came up to me aggravated, saying, "Great, now I am going to have to go to Mountain View! Thanks!"

The school has told him that another referral will result in his removal from the school and placement at "The Teen Learning Center," also known as Mountain View, a school for emotionally disabled and troubled kids.

I was greatly irritated, but told him to wait in the hall and I would see him in a minute.

When I went out, he was sitting on the floor of the hallway, with his head slumped down. I sat down on the floor with him and asked him what was going on. He reiterated his story about my referral taking him out of school. We talked at length (about 5 minutes) about this. Apparently, he does not want to go to TLC, even though I think that the smaller class sizes and more structured environment might be good for him. We talked about "getting referrals." I tried to get him to see that if he got referrals or not was his decision. If he would like to stay at CLP, he needs to decide inside himself that he will start participating and behaving appropriately.

I don't know if he really gets it. I am afraid that he has been lacking in structure for so long that he does not know at all how to discipline or restrain himself. I think that he will probably "screw up" sometime in the next couple of weeks and get his referral and be placed in the alternative school. I probably should have done it today, for kicking another student is a referrable offense. I didn't.

I feel bad for him and his situation. I have done what I can to help, but I am not sure I made much of a difference.

The Difference Between Boys and Girls

Mr. Jewett has started a new project for the kids in Computer Productions today. It is a film project.

Kids are to get together in groups of 3-4 and come up with a short film idea on the theme "Christmas Spirit at CLP." The story is to be between one and two minutes long and the kids will shoot it with videocameras, then edit the film on the computer, adding sounds, graphics, texts, etc.

The group that does the best job on their project will have their film shown on the Christmas edition of CLPN, the weekly news video that some of the advanced kids put together.

The groups are mostly all-boy and all-girl. Groups have to have their idea cleared with me or Mr. Jewett before they start their filming.

The girls' ideas start pouring in:

"We want to do a story about a little girl whose puppy is sick and she is at the vets and some grouchy people come by and they help her and they get the Christmas spirit and everyone is happy."

"We find this old map in a book at the library and it looks like a treasure map, so we follow it and it leads us to this little room down in the basement at CLP and when we get there and open the door, we find that it is Santa's workshop, with elves and Christmas trees and stuff and we find out that Santa's workshop is in a secret room underneath CLP."

The boys' ideas start pouring in:

"Santa is attacked by aliens, who shoot him with a laser and his head explodes. The aliens take over Santa's sleigh and deliver slimeball and alien glob presents to everyone."

"Santa is a gangster who breaks in and steals toys from kids. The cops chase him down and take him to jail."

"Santa is a ninja who gets jumped by a whole army of black ninjas wanting to steal all of his toys. There is a big battle, and Santa kills all of the other ninjas."

It is amazing how junior high boys feed on violence. When they are creating their websites or flash movies, we have to continually tell them "No bloodshed! No guns! No death!"

I don't remember being like that when I was a kid. Maybe I was...

The Degeneration of a Kid

One of the kids in our 2nd Period Advanced class, C., seems to have been turning into a punk recently. It is kind of strange.

If you check the archives, the school picture of this kid from last year is very clean-cut and proper. You can tell just by looking at him that he probably gets A's in school.

This year, things are a little different. He has all kinds of weird piercings, including a big horn-like bone thing that he wears in his ear. His hair is colored all funny and cut crooked and strange. He wears clothes with holes and strange pictures on them.

He was the kid that showed a bunch of attitude at the start of my Graphic Arts project and got removed from class for saying that the assignment was stupid and that he didn't want to do it. Since then, he has continued to get in trouble. He got a referral from another class for drawing pictures with marijuana on them. He got a referral from Mr. Jewett for posting a joke on the Internet that was not-school appropriate. I was there for that one, Mr. Jewett told him at least 10 times not to post the joke, but C. still did. He is in ISS for a week and lost his computer privileges during that time. For a week, he has been doing written computer assignments each day.

In the lunch room at school today, the teachers were all talking about a kid that was seen with a crowd of other kids in the hallway this morning with a big wadful of cash in small bills. C. was one of the kids crowding around. There is an investigation on regarding this situation. Most were of the opinion that the kid was selling drugs, likely joints.

I saw C. yesterday after school. He and another kid came into the computer lab where I was working. They were talking about sneaking out of their house at night and getting caught and I heard the word "blunts" a time or two, meaning joints.

I kicked them out of the lab, as they weren't doing anything but looking for trouble. On the way out of the room, C. saw my backpack on the table. He just opened it up and started rummaging through my stuff. I had to bark at him to get him away.

Yikes.

I wonder if his folks are paying as much attention to him as they should. He sure seems to be heading down a wrong path.

Monday. Missing Links.

Today is Monday. On Monday, we type and we catch up on projects that need to be completed or turned in. Today is no exception.

As the end of the semester is rapidly approaching, Mr. Jewett and I have been busy grading student projects. We have probably graded about 7-8 projects for all of our classes over the last 3 days or so. Many of these projects have been getting Zeroes and kid's grades have been plummeting.

In our computer classes, when a student has a project, they are to link their project on their personal webpage, so that Mr. Jewett and I can access the works from the website and grade them. If the project is not linked, the kid gets a zero.

"Wait," you say, "that isn't fair!" "What if a kid did all of the work, but forgot to link the page, should they get a Zero just because of that?"

"You," I say, "aren't thinking like a 21st century, technologically savvy educator and should try to adjust your mindset."

Pretend we are in English class and a kid has a short story to write and works really hard on it and does really good stuff. Due day comes and the kid does not turn anything in. What should their grade be? You have nothing indicating that the kid did the work, so the only grade you can give is a Zero.

Same with us and the website links. If we can't see it, you get a zero. Generally, Mr. Jewett and I let kids relink for a regrade later. My rule for this is "If you want me to regrade your work, you have to send me an email asking me to regrade." Kids forget this all the time. They will see me in the hall and say "Mr. Burkhard, I linked my stuff, ple........" and then they get swept away in the tide of students in the hallway. They then think that I heard them, understood them and will remember their hallway pleadings. No chance. I forget these interactions almost instantly.

Anyway, today, kids were relinking, modifying and redoing work to get caught up. Not much else happened during the school day.