Monday, May 30, 2011

Bleak Outlook for College Graduates...DUH!

Sunday, I watched “This Week” with Christiane Amanpour. She had a roundtable discussion with a group of new college grads--from particularly fancy colleges, and two successful businessmen.

Out of the four students participating in the round table, one simply doesn’t have a job, one will be continuing with higher education, one has two job offers—not in career fields he wants to pursue, and one was rather vague on if he has a job prospect or not. Yikes.

Here’s the link if you are interested:

http://abcnews.go.com/ThisWeek/video/roundtable-graduates-ceos-13713737

I have to say, I am so glad that I graduated from college when I did. Almost ten years ago, (OMG, I am old!) I was in the same shoes as these college graduates. Truly, I loved every moment that I spent at Michigan State University. I have a liberal arts degree in Social Relations. (No, I am not a professional party planner, the major is actually more about public policy.) I loved what I studied and I loved my friends from 2 South. I graduated in three and a half years and I worked my butt off. It was not easy!

My first job was at Enterprise Rent-a-Car, and I worked there for eighteen months. It was not my dream job, but I needed something to pay the bills. I washed and rented cars while wearing a suit. I was in their “Management Training Program.” I made less than $30,000 a year and I worked over 50 hours a week. I was thankful for that overtime, because that mean extra money. I would scarf down my lunch at my desk in between rentals, so that I didn’t have to clock out.

After Enterprise, I worked at several other jobs—some were better, some were worse, but I still felt like I was missing something.

It wasn’t until five years ago that I found that missing “link.” It was at this time that my husband and I decided to sell our house, quit our jobs, and move to Texas. I wanted to teach and there were no opportunities in Michigan.

Thankfully, my husband is ridiculously supportive and we had this blind faith that everything would work out.

Lucky for us, it did. I got a teaching job within three weeks of moving to Texas. I didn’t get my first paycheck until almost two months later, but we made it. On the other hand, my first year of teaching is a whole additional blog post…and then some. But that is neither here nor there.

So, here is where the show, “This week” comes in. One of the businessmen who was being interviewed stated that there are tons of jobs in Silicon Valley for people who are in technical or engineering fields.

Here is where I come in. It is my job as a teacher to prepare my kids for the real world. No matter what grade they are in (Yes, even elementary age kids.) They must be exposed to STEM fields (Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics). They need to know what possibilities are out there—because that is where the jobs are at now and in the future. We need to teach our lessons and integrate our curriculum so that STEM is in everything we do.

I never thought I could be an engineer because I always hated math. This last year my district started a STEM magnet program for 4th and 5th graders. (I was one of the fifth grade teachers.) I have learned a bit about engineering, and I have seen what a difference it makes for kids. Kids are natural engineers. They love to work with their hands—to design and create improvements to technology. They can do it! I am sold on STEM, and I think more teachers would be if they had the proper resources.

So maybe, if we start our kids early and get them interested in STEM fields, they will realize there are fantastic opportunities out there. And, by the time they graduate from college they will not only have a job, but they will be working in a field they love to work in (and making lots of money that they can donate to their long lost teacher?)

Seriously, what we are doing is not working. We have to get our kids ready for the job market. Otherwise, things will never change.

Sunday, May 22, 2011

The end (of the school year) is near and I am not ready!

Ok, so if you have been reading my blog, you know that I have been counting down to the end of the school year since spring break. It is not because my school year has been bad, it is just that I always like to know when my next break is. After 179 instructional days, weekends filled with lesson planning, and an average of 2-3 after school meetings a week—I am a little tired.

Well, now the end is approaching and I will admit, I am not ready to say goodbye to my fifth graders. I seriously love my students this year! One of the reasons I wanted to move to elementary school was so that I could build relationships with my students. When I taught middle school I had over 100 kids and I wasn’t able to get to know them as well as I wished I could have.

No, my fifth graders have not always been perfect, and I have had to lecture more as of late—but truly my students this year surpassed my expectations and helped me to raise the bar for years to come.

They are the sweetest and smartest group of kids that I think I will ever teach. I won’t forget being amazed the second day of school, when I asked them to bring a book for silent reading for the next day and every single one of them showed up with a book! (That would never happen at my old middle school.) Just last week at lunch I noticed that one of my boys had brought a Lunchable and a nice looking sandwich—I made a comment to him that he had a good lunch that day. He looked at me with an “aw shucks” look on his face and said his mom packed an extra sandwich for one of my boys, who, the day before told our class about how money was tight at their house and he didn’t want to ask his parents for lunch money. I know it is just a sandwich, but I thought that was a true testament to the kindness of my students.

I have witnessed some amazing things this 2010-2011 school year. From my students engineering creations, to the wonderful story of the little boy who was homeschooled and four years behind in his academics-- he worked his little heart out this year. He was able to make friends AND pass both the reading and math standardized tests! His metamorphosis has been nothing short of a miracle.

I will still visit many of my kids when they are at middle school. I love to go to sporting events where I get to see my “old students.” To me there is nothing better than getting to catch up with a kid I used to have in my class. I usually tell them when they leave my room they can do one of two things. One, they can come up and say hi, and if they want a hug, I will give them one. Or, two, they can ignore me completely. Either way, I will still be their “old teacher.”

So, this Thursday we have our 5th grade awards assembly. I hope I can keep it together. I have never cried on the last day of school, usually I am so ready to get my next group of kids (and start my summer break). I have a feeling that this Friday I will probably shed a tear or two.

Saturday, May 14, 2011

Open letter to the school nurse--RE: Puberty Talk

Dear School Nurse,

Thank you for taking the time to talk to our fifth graders about puberty. Unfortunately, it is ten days from the end of the school year, so it may have been too little too late. I am thankful you did not talk about reproduction. Although, I fear some kids need to hear about that, too. I am not naïve about what happens when kids go to middle school, and I have seen plenty of girls at the high school who are also new mommies.

Yes, every fifth grader should be showering and wearing deodorant—everyday. I agree, as we do live in Texas, where it is hot 9 months out of the year. “We” are quite smelly and sweaty even at 8am after P.E. Additionally, I wish you would have given some advice to those poor kids whose parents simply don’t allow them to wear deodorant? Should they sneak it? Should their teacher have some spray on deodorant for them to wear when they are at school? Should the children just wear a lot of perfume or perhaps don my personal favorite AXE body spray? (UGH, that stuff is awful.)

I was fortunate enough to sit in on the girls talk, and I did not think it was inappropriate. Yes, they did laugh from time to time, but I had to chuckle here and there, too. The girls had a lot of questions. I could gather that many of their parents simply don’t talk to them about the various “changes to their bodies.” I remember when I was in 5th grade, our school had their puberty talk at night and if you went, your parent (mothers for the girls and fathers for the boys) attended with you.

I will say, some of my female colleagues felt as if the talk for the boys was a little on the risqué/awkward side. Perhaps it is because we are women? Perhaps our society says it is not polite to talk about the “E” word? I don’t know, but I am thankful I did not have to lead them in that conversation.

Lucky for me, your discussion opened up the door to many, many more discussions. But, I am hoping that these discussions are taking place with their parents, rather than with their friends via Facebook, or texts.

In closing, I thank you for scheduling this conversation at the end of a day on a Friday. I am hoping they will get all of this newly learned information out of their systems, and they will have forgotten about it by Monday.

Thanks again,

Better you than me

Friday, May 6, 2011

NASA-A fieldtrip of a lifetime

Today I was able to go on a field trip to the Johnson Space Center in Houston, TX. I was rather nervous as we were taking 80 fifth graders. We were to leave at 6am and return around 8pm.

Funny, before we boarded the busses, you would think the parents were sending their kids off to their first semester of college. One of my boys later admitted to me, that he got a little “emotional” when he said good bye to his parents for the day.

We took two chartered busses; our drivers name was Money. The other bus drivers name was Sparky. (Seriously, I couldn’t make this up.) After a half an hour detour to get to the highway, we were finally on our way.

We had enough doughnuts and kolaches to feed 200+ kids. And we had over 300 water bottles. That might be a slight exaggeration, but no one should have gone hungry or thirsty the whole trip.

After almost five hours, we arrived at Johnson Space Center. The kids were excited. They had a small project that they needed to complete, but overall, the day was going to be easy for them. Their main goal was to behave. They were put in groups with kids from both schools (from the east and west sides of the highway.) This was interesting on many levels. The short version is: people typically think of kids from the east side as poor and minority and kids from the west as the exact opposite. (I teach the east side kids and I love them dearly.)

As we walked in the doors, we were able to see the various sights and sounds of NASA. We were able to hear astronaut Scott Parazynski talk about his various missions and the future of the space program. I loved it!

The other highlight of the day was the NASA tram tour. Yes, we did have to wait for about an hour, but we got to see the Vehicle Mockup Facility/ the current Mission Control Center. The tram tour concluded with a visit the "all new" Saturn V Complex at Rocket Park. As, our program is named “Saturn V,” we had to take a picture of all 80 kids in front of the rocket.

After a quick trip to the gift shop, we were on our way back home. I wish we would have had a little more time to walk around and see more of the exhibits, but the day was awesome!

My mom (a teacher) told one of her coworkers that we were taking this trip to NASA. Her coworker stated that this field trip was one that kids “in Michigan could never dream of going on. NASA, now, that would be a fieldtrip of a lifetime.”

I couldn’t agree more. We are truly lucky to live in a state that has such awesome places and I am so fortunate to be able to work in a district that makes STEM education a priority!

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