'Stand and Deliver' teacher dies of cancer - CNN.com

A truly sad day for education everywhere. Jaime Escalante, the Bolivian born teacher who became famous in the 1980s, even had a movie made about him, has died of cancer. Details of the report can be seen by clicking the link below.

'Stand and Deliver' teacher dies of cancer - CNN.com

International Day

Academy

International day at InterAmerican 

Today (Saturday) had a great time at International Day. All of the students and parents set up booths honoring their home countries - with information, art, and of course food. We had representatives from Norway, South Korea, the USA and a host of Latin American counties like Chile. I had some great food and played some soccer!

Frustrating Day

Some schools are organized - with a plan that is clearly communicated.

Other schools...

...are not.

So here we are, on a Friday, waiting. With the start of classes coming, teachers are hanging. We are hanging because the school hasn't decided what rooms each teacher will have (so we can't organize or decorate our rooms) they haven't established which classes each teacher will teach, because they are missing several teachers so haven't figured out how to cover everything (yeas, you know that you will be teaching English Lit, but will it be Juniors or Sophomores? It makes a difference).

So you do waht you can, then wait. Next week our time is supposed to be taken up in workshops, so no doubt the decisions will be made at the worst possible time, causing the teachers to scramble to get ready for classes.

So much for having lots of time to get ready for school to start.

teaching resources

I'm getting ready for a new teaching cycle, but I'm always looking for new ideas to use in the classroom. I ran across this book and i decided to order it, so I thought I'd post a link to it for anyone who wants to look at it.

Happy teaching!

First Day in the Books!

Mar 22 is back to school for teachers so here I am back into a work routine. If this statement seems funny coming in March, remember that school calendars in South America generally run from April to January. We are up early enough to get our animals taken care of and lunches packed. Then my wife gets on her bus and I get on mine. First day for teachers, of course is fairly simple. We get a couple of meetings, spend some time networking with the other teachers and seeing what everybody did on their vacations. Then we check out our rooms - I got a new desk! We got the schedule for the next two weeks - filled with requirements for turning in curriculum plans, developing diagnostic tests and teaching workshops. On April 5 the 1st Course (US equivalent is 7th Grade) begins classes, while the rest of the secondary school, including myself, begins on 6 April.

After school was over I changed and did a cardio session on the school track. While doing that I heard a yell. Some of my oncoming seniors were at basketball practice. While the ladies had a water break we talked a bit and briefly got caught up. Fun! This has been my best group the last two years, and now they are seniors. I have big expectations for them - and me - for this year, they are such good kids, and strong students.

First Day For Teachers - Ecuador Style!

I know it sounds funny to Northern Hemisphere teachers but today - 22 March - is the first day back for teachers on a new school year. The first week is on reduced hours - no classes starting at 7:15 - so for this week we come in an hour later. For me and the others who don't have a car, the school sends around an expreso (a private bus). Lisa was just picked up by her school's bus, since InterAmericano goes by the North-american school calendar, so I have about an hour to kill.

Excited? Yeah! But it is raining outside, and I have two bags of stuff I'm carrying in to get started organizing. Bleah! Maybe I'll get lucky and the rain will pass by?

Expat Britons lose pensions appeal | Money | guardian.co.uk

Expats - people who live overseas from their home country, may be looking at some problems, at least if you are British and counting on pension monies to keep you solvent. A recent EU court case says it is legal for the British government to not pay pensions to retired citizens living overseas.

A lot of people go overseas because it is much cheaper to live, and you can often make a slim pension check go farther. Even I, who work overseas, depend in part on a partial pension the US Veteran's Administration pays me. While this is not a problem for US citizens now, I hate to think that politicians in Washington might hit on a (to them) brilliant idea of helping pay for the mounting deficits by taking away from a mostly powerless and voiceless constituency.

You can read details about the British case by clicking the link below:


Expat Britons lose pensions appeal |
Money |
guardian.co.uk

Overseas Teaching Resource

Here is a great book that demystifies teaching overseas, the good, the bad and the downright pug ugly.

Education: What constitutes high quality literacy teaching? - by Richard Lloyd Evans - Helium

Here is a link to an article I wrote on Helium.com about literacy teaching. Literacy, ESL and reading are things I feel passionate about.

Education: What constitutes high quality literacy teaching? - by Richard Lloyd Evans - Helium

Vacation Winding Down

Yes, those sad words for a teacher, vacation is almost over. Since my school runs on the South American schedule - April to January, teachers come back March 22 to start getting ready. That's Monday! Actually, today is really my last day of vacation, because I told my wife I'd come into her class and give a presentation (her school works on the North American calendar, August to May).

Of course, it really isn't bad. It has been long enough that i'm missing the kids and getting eager for the new year to start. I am especially excited about my seniors this year. there are a bunch of good, dedicated students in this group and I expect good things from them. As a comparison, with last year's seniors I only had four out of 32 students take their IB exams in Business, and it was a struggle to help them get ready, while the senior projects from all of them were of poorer quality than I expect.

Frustrating, but then that senior class had the lowest overall academic scores in the 80-year history of our school. Just one of those things where we had a large concentration of under performing students in one year. There were a lot of smart kids in that class, they just would rather party than do their work. I never could find a way to really connect with that group, few teachers in our school did, and that is what was so frustrating.

This year, however, I'll have about 42-44 students, with around 25 going for their IB exams. A large group of these kids are extremely dedicated and competitive academically. A lot of them think it is a failure if they score a 95 on an assignment. I can't wait to see what they will be doing on their projects.

Back to School!

When Education Decisions are Made by Texas Politicians

The biggest problem with standards, whether they be by No Child Left Behind, or some state standard, is that these standards all too often are made by politicians, and not by people who know education. When politicians decide what your teacher will teach your child, no end to troubles follow.

the Texas Board of Education is the poster child for this damning reality. Check out this news report from Yahoo about their deliberations over state standards:

Texas ed board vote reflects far-right influences

Texas has the longest set of standards in the world, so far as I know. One in which one of the few teachers involved, Fort Worth Republican Pat Hardy, said in the article "What we've done is we've taken a document that by nature is too long to begin with and then we've lengthened it some more," Hardy said, "I just think we failed to keep that in mind, it's hard for teachers to get through it all."

Amen, sister. Hard to expect teachers to teach when the standards to be taught are too lengthy even to be read by the teacher who is supposed to be teaching it.

Education meltdown - Closing Schools in Kansas City

The AP reports that Kansas City is on the road to closing about half of its schools, because the education system is facing bankruptcy.

For details click here.

As so often happens when governments mismanage their finances, it will be education - especially the children who pay the price. Yes, i know, it is the recession that primarily is at fault. But a lot of the spending during good times left no options if bad times hit. History tells us that leaders who milk the good and ignore potential bad eventually ruin it all.

Back in the Saddle - With the Wife!

Even though my school is still out on vacation (it goes by the South American schedule with vacation in February and March)my wife's school follows the North American schedule and it is still going strong. At her school, Intermerican Academy of Guayaquil, has a program she runs where students can earn a Distinguished Honors Diploma by meeting several requirements, including completion of a research project. Tomorrow, I will be on a judging panel for the top seniors to present the results of their projects.

Once again, me in front of students!

Is it politics - Or is it Overblown?

Three white, male elementary school teachers are on administrative leave this last weekend. During a Black History Month Parade, their students carried pictures of OJ Simpson, Dennis Rodman and RuPaul, along a parade festooned with photos of Barrack Obama,Harriet Tubman and Nelson Mandela. The local chapter of the NAACP complained, and a spokesman for the school district superintendant reportedly said ""The superintendent will not let anyone make a mockery out of Black History Month," she said."

You can read more details about the situation here.

For some real Black History check out:

Recruiting Fairs Almost Done

The Recruiting Fair Season is almost over. The largest one still left is:

Search Associates, Bangkok, The Westin Grande Sukhumvit, March 19-21

Teachers without positions now need to scramble to find a job.

Third World Health Care

One thing to always worry about when living and working in a Third World Country is Health Care. It is not just quality, but so often the crazy rules other countires have are even worse then we hear about the US system. Consider this situation:

My wife is bedridden due to pain from a herniated disk in her back. The Doctor prescribes a pain medication - 20 doses of 5mg each. I go to the one pharmacy in the area that carries that medicine. Can't help me. They have the medicine, but they only sell it in quantities of 30. Can't buy 30 because the prescription is for 20. They can'
t just call or fax the doctor to clarify or correct it, like a US pharmacist normally would do. Can't buy 20 because the minimum is 30. It takes a second roundtrip to the doctor and again to the pharmacy to get the medication.

Thinking of Teaching Overseas?

People thinking of teaching overseas for the first time have lots of questions - what about visa requirements? Is it safe? How do I handle taxes? How do I vote?

A really good resource that has stood the test of time is John W. Adams' US Expatriot Handbook. Here is a link to it on Amazon for those who are interested in getting a look.

Almost back in the swing of things

Curriculum Planning - Sub teaching - IRS Victory!

With the South American school vacation drawing to a close at the end of this month, I'm back to work, in more ways than one.

The biggest thing is I am working on new curriculum mapping for our IB Business Program. We are tinkering with how we develop some of the information for the students through the three years of the program. In the past it hasn't been that big of a problem because I taught all of the business classes. However with our student population I'm only going to be teaching the Juniors and Seniors, while someone, currently unidentified person will be teaching Sophomores. With another teacher in the mix, expecially one with (presumably) less experience than I, I am trying to make their transition smooth, with lots of materials available to help them get a handle on it.

I was also in the classroom today. Lisa has been having some back problems and couldn't make it today. When she called in early today Celia, her school's jefe in charge of getting subs, asked if I could fill in. So I ended up going from lounging about lazily to hastily scrambling to get ready. I taught two English Lit classes, Seniors for Hamlet to start. They were covering Hamlet's famous "To be or not to be..." Bad mistake to have a history geek and sometime actor like me running this class. I think they will be begging for Mrs Evans to come back soon! Then it was going over a Hawthorne short story for Lisa's Junior class.

While at her school I collected her mail and behold! A Check. We have been in a running battle with the IRS since 2005. We filed, but I made a small mistake. The IRS caught the mistake but misapplied some numbers to the wrong category and - whooop! the IRS said we owed them $50,000. What? It went so far as one time they siezed money out of a bank account to pay the "collection." Eventually we got through the taxpayer advocate department and finally the IRS understood the problem. The case is now closed and we received a nice check, returning the seized money with interest. Hey! The little guy can win! Of course it took several hundred hours and five years to get it fixed, but it happened. Now I can pay some bills!