Mermaid Cookies & Under the Sea Fun
Tonight I'm taking my Mom out for dinner and a movie, but I didn't want another post to go by without sharing Lil C's birthday with you.
I imagine it must be difficult to visualize airplane cookies turning into mermaids, but I swear they did. Here's the photographic evidence.
Here's some of the food. The fruit kabobs were a big hit.
Here's the starfish bread bowl I made for the crab dip.
Here's the other one. . .
Here's one of the kid activities. They made "under the sea" things to hang on their bedroom doors.
This was a game for the Mer-Dads. They had to eat all the Swedish Fish on their plate and they just happened to be under a huge pile of whipped cream. No hands allowed. They were such good sports.
Mr. BBM was a good sport. The man can eat whipped cream like no one's business. He barely even got messy.
Here are all the good sports.
Of course, the kids needed a turn too.
Here's the awesome Ariel cake.
And the birthday girl. . .
Here are some of the under the sea decorations.
More pics of the camel ride on her actual birthday to come!
Mermaid Cookies & Under the Sea Fun
Tonight I'm taking my Mom out for dinner and a movie, but I didn't want another post to go by without sharing Lil C's birthday with you.
I imagine it must be difficult to visualize airplane cookies turning into mermaids, but I swear they did. Here's the photographic evidence.
Here's some of the food. The fruit kabobs were a big hit.
Here's the starfish bread bowl I made for the crab dip.
Here's the other one. . .
Here's one of the kid activities. They made "under the sea" things to hang on their bedroom doors.
This was a game for the Mer-Dads. They had to eat all the Swedish Fish on their plate and they just happened to be under a huge pile of whipped cream. No hands allowed. They were such good sports.
Mr. BBM was a good sport. The man can eat whipped cream like no one's business. He barely even got messy.
Here are all the good sports.
Of course, the kids needed a turn too.
Here's the awesome Ariel cake.
And the birthday girl. . .
Here are some of the under the sea decorations.
More pics of the camel ride on her actual birthday to come!
Get Rid of the Warm and Fuzzies
Filed under: Back in the Classroom, Things that get my gi all in a bunch
Last week, I had a student skip his scheduled speech date. In order to pass the class, students must give all speeches. I also don't allow late assignments. So when he came in my class and asked what he should do about it, I had a decision to make.
I happen to like this kid and think he has great potential; but he is such a slacker right now and he needs to get organized. So I decided to allow him to give his speech a class late for half credit. It's still a failing grade, but at least he won't have to dig himself out from under a big 0. I told him though, that the only way I was allowing him to deliver his speech was if he wrote a personal improvement plan, a plan that detailed how he was going to get his act together.
Today he came to class on time and with his plan in hand. I allowed him to deliver his speech and with any luck, he will pass this class, probably by the skin of his teeth.
But that's not what I want to talk about today.
What I want to vent about is what was in his personal improvement plan. Apparently, this student has some learning issues and spent much of his high school career being pulled out of mainstream classrooms to be coddled. He says so himself. He goes so far as to say that he was actually "spoon-fed" answers on tests on most occasions and that because of this he entered his freshman year of college without any skills when it comes to getting work done and correctly. Things were done for him in high school.
He is not the first university student I have had with these types of problems; and frankly, something needs to be done about it. We spend so much time in education, stressing the importance of making students feel good about themselves by handing them answers and spoon-feeding them, that we forget that we're doing a huge disservice to these students. When you're used to being spoon-fed, what will you do in the work force? I'll tell you what, you'll fail in that arena too.
When I taught high school, my second year of teaching I was given three special education TAM classes which means that I had a special education teacher in my classroom during those three classes and my students' issues ranged from not being able to read, to having ADHD, to having severe behavior problems. I was at first, very upset about having these classes. I didn't get any special education training when I was getting my Master's in education. I didn't have any idea what to do or where to begin; and personally, I felt it was grossly unfair to my non-special ed students since they made up less than 50% of the classroom and were surrounded by many more special education than state-mandated laws should have allowed. Fortunately, I had a talented teacher in my classroom to help me. She provided accommodations to students, but one thing she did not do was coddle them or give them answers. Because of this, I would sometimes hear students talk about how much easier the other special ed. teacher was to work with. This teacher was notorious for handing kids A's when they did nothing to deserve them. It was extremely frustrating for me and for my TAM teacher.
Having moved on to teach at the university level, I am increasingly frustrated with where education is going. Some of these freshman are completely unprepared to handle the responsibility of a college class. This isn't high school. I shouldn't have to write assignments on the board each day, when they already have a syllabus. It can be a frustrating job of taking them out of the hand-holding attitude they've grown up with to one that stresses personal responsibility.
While I fully realize that kids with learning disabilities and behavior issues need modifications, simply providing them with answers they don't have to work for isn't helping anyone. Self-esteem is definitely important when it comes to education, but shouldn't we be helping students with their self esteem by giving them the tools and resources they need in order to find the answers on their own. Isn't this actually what education is intended to be? Isn't the feeling kids get from actually accomplishing something on their own better than us lowering expectations and still patting them on the head?
I'd like to know when special education became a warm and fuzzy thing where instead of teaching kids alternate ways to get to the answers, we decided it's best to just hand them the answers. There is a trickle down effect to this that is bringing students into universities unprepared. And if students go directly from high school to the job market, then what?
One may think that I haven't experienced any issues with my own kids, and therefore can't speak to this issue; but that is simply not true. In 1st grade, Big I was pulled out of class several times a week to get extra help with reading. She didn't like being pulled out and I didn't like it either. I fought it her entire Kindergarten year and finally gave in during 1st grade. She was behind the other kids when it came to reading. She needed to get caught up. After a couple months of extra help, she was able to stop going to the reading resource teacher. The teacher, although tough at times, didn't hand her answers. She taught her better ways to read and Big I got it. She didn't get a sticker every week; she got one only when she had done really well. It paid off. Now in third grade, Big I is one of two kids in an independent reading group. She doesn't need guided reading because her reading comprehension is off the charts. I recognize that kids need extra help sometimes; but they need the right kind of help to really get somewhere.
I've heard a lot of talk recently about extending school days and extending the school year. Maybe instead of adding more time to the school year, we should be changing what happens in the classroom during the hours they are there. Ten hours of handing kids the answers isn't going to be any better than eight hours of doing the same thing. However, eight hours of actually teaching kids with learning issues how to work more efficiently and find the answers on their own is going to benefit not only the students, but future employers and our country as well.
The dumbing down of American students has to stop if we want our country to be successful an competitive. Instead of lowering expectations, we need to raise them and help students find ways to get there. Spoon feeding is for babies, not grown-ups; and something clearly needs to change.
Not That Black Belt
Before I tested for my black belt, I already made up my mind. I wasn't going to be the black belt that gets the belt and then drops off the face of the Earth. Coming up through the ranks, I had seen that happen. There were several people who would test, get their belt, and then only show up occasionally. Sometimes when I asked them questions, they couldn't give me an answer or remember a kata. I didn't want to be that person.
Yesterday I realized I was quickly becoming that person.
I hadn't been to the dojo in two weeks and I was missing it. However, once you miss a class or four of them, it's difficult to get back on the horse. I was talking about this phenomenon with my students yesterday who were concerned about another student who hasn't come for the past three classes. They couldn't understand his behavior, but I can.
What happens is simple and it happened to me my freshman year as well. You miss one class and then when the next class comes up, you don't want to go because you're afraid you'll be called out or that you missed something important in the class you already missed. So you don't go again. Now you've missed two, so missing the third class is even more likely because now you're a week behind! It's easy to fall into a bad pattern.
I didn't want that to be me either. It felt lousy as a college student and it feels no different as an adult.
I quickly ate some leftovers and told Mr. BBM that I was going to both classes last night. Tuesday night is really the only time this is even an option for me since it's the one day that Mr. BBM works from home. I haven't attended a Monday night class in months. Asking Mr. BBM to work an entire day, drive an hour plus commute, and add on top of that an extra 20 minutes to get to the dojo to pick up and take the girls home so I can stay for class just doesn't seem fair.
So for once, I arrived at 6 to take the early class and I was glad I did. Warm-ups were brutal because I am out of practice. We did about 140 jumping jacks to start and I thought my left calf muscle would be rendered useless for the rest of the class. Thankfully it wasn't. This marked only the second time that when we lined up to rei in, I had to take my spot where the yudansha stand. Being the only other black belt in attendance at the early class last night, I was the only one in this spot and it felt weird. Thankfully, I knew what to do for the rei in. The Rei out was a different and embarrassing story, but you have to learn somehow.
We worked on basics for the entire first class and it felt good to get back to the bricks and mortar of training. We have so many new white belts whose names I didn't even know so it was nice to attend the early class and get to know them a little better. The best part of the night had to be thrust kicking the bags. It felt so incredibly good to really kick something. Although training for my Shodan test was intense and almost every night of the week in some way, shape, or form, I can honestly say that I miss it. When training every night, you can feel yourself get stronger and better at what you're doing. This two weeks in between classes has got to stop for me.
When the night was over, I was drenched in sweat and felt completely exhausted but good. I doubt anyone else noticed (Thank God) but during the two hours of training, I had hit myself in the face once when I got confused during a moving drill, and I cracked myself on the head with my tunfa too. This is what happens when you're not there on a regular basis, and when you're exhausted to begin with.
Exhausted or not from trying to mold resistant university students into responsible hard workers, I have to make more of an effort to get into class. I felt like I was neglecting my family and other responsibilities during those few months leading up to the shodan test, so there has to be a balance when you have a family, when you're a mom and also a teacher. But I also know that I'm a better person when I train regularly.
Oh, and I know, I know, I know. Pictures of Lil C's birthday and the infamous mermaid cookies are to come, probably tomorrow.
Awesome Is as Awesome Does
When you can make the result of an airplane cookie cutter look like a mermaid for Lil C's "Under the Sea" party this weekend. . . you're pretty awesome.
When you're in solid second place in one fantasy football league. . . you're pretty awesome.
When you're in dead last in another league. . .
If you're in the same boat, you should go commiserate with me here.
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