Before I taught persuasive writing, I had the students write a persuasive essay about iPods at school (they are forbidden here). Here is A.'s essay (I corrected some grammar and spelling, but not much):I think that iPods should be allowed in school.I believe that if we had iPods in school, then we would work when we should and we would be more successful.I also think that if we had heavy metal rock on it then we would not be able to concentrate therefore we would have to be limited to certain songs and/or artists.I think that it would be a problem though if the teacher needed to say something or the bell rings because we wouldn't be able to hear so as a solution think that we should only be allowed to have one earphone in.I know that there are some rough spots that would have to be worked out, but I still think that it would be better.This essay is pretty indicative of the essays that I got back from my students. There are a lot of problems with this, and I left some of the mistakes in. Each paragraph is only one sentence long and then it is time to move on to something new.The students wrote their essays about iPods last week. Then, I taught them how to write a persuasive essay. They wrote one as a group, and then they wrote these yesterday on their own.I gave the students this topic for a persuasive essay: "Should 7th Graders Wear Deodorant?" Look at how much better A. did on her first essay after learning this strategy (I corrected some grammar and spelling, but not much):Have you ever sat by someone and they were the stinkiest person that you have ever smelled? Some people believe that seventh graders don't need to wear deodorant...but we know better. Seventh graders must be some of the stinkiest people in the world! (Boys in particular.)One reason seventh graders must start to wear deodorant is because they have just started to hit puberty, and I don't think that they realize that as you get older you start to smell worse. For example, have you noticed that your grandmother or grandfather smell all musty? That is because they're old. It is possible that you are saying, "Well, what about babies? They stink, though." But that is only because they are not potty trained, but imagine that if they were they wouldn't be so smelly.Another reason seventh graders should wear deodorant is because if they ride the bus they they are permanently out of friends. For example, the bus doesn't have any air conditioning and then they start to give off deadly fumes and the worst part is that you can't just get off the bus because then you would just end up walking home when it wasn't even your fault.In addition to hitting puberty and being smelly on the bus, seventh graders must wear deodorant because when they sweat, the salt in the perspiration will dry and make your skin flaky, and the rubbing of your arms as you walk will chafe the skin in your pits, therefore, you have to buy medicated lip balm to soothe the pain and ease the chafing. This is a much more expensive alternative rather than buying a cheap stick of deodorant.As you can see, puberty, being smelly on the bus, and sweating show that it is a matter of life and death for both the seventh grader and those who are older to slather a destinkifying white stick, commonly known as deodorant.This essay is not perfect, but she did a pretty good job of staying on topic and following the outline I posted previously. For seventh graders, organization is a very difficult thing to do. This second essay is way better than her first essay. This is great! You see, seeing students achieve something that is so much better than what they did before makes teaching worthwhile.Have a Good Life.

Photo Credit: BenGoode on FlickrToday I started my internship at ES Elementary School. Mr. P. is the principal there, and I think he is a pretty good guy. He strikes me as a very interesting fellow; he always measures his words carefully, and very methodical about everything he does. It makes him seem very wise and laid back. I find that very interesting and probably a good foil for me; I am usually pretty animated and often speak before I think. I also want everything done fast, fast, fast! He does not seem that way at all. He takes his time and doesn't worry too much about anything.Mr. P. told me today that what he experienced today has not happened in his 32 years in education--that means baptism by fire for me. Sweet. I must also take this time to say that I am so excited to be a principal. That is easy to say after being at a school for three hours and being able to leave all the problems as I walk out the door, calling my wife to say I will be home soon. Mr. P. cannot do that. We'll see how I feel about things after the remaining 350 hours I need for my internship. I think I will still enjoy it. The thing that I like so much about it is solving problems. It seems that is 90% (at least) of the job. If I can solve problems well, which I love to do, I think that I can be successful.There were two big problems today. First, there was a gas smell that some kid got a whiff of yesterday, and so he went home sick. A bunch of other kids "smelled" the "gas" as well, and so they went home sick. (Personally, I think the first kid had tried smoking pot for the first time and that is why he had an upset stomach and a headache--everyone else just followed his lead and saw an opportunity to get some attention and go home. I don't know the kids name or anything about him or her, I honestly don't know if it was a boy or a girl. That was my gut reaction when it was being explained to me.) But, anyway, Mr. P. reminded me of an important lesson: "You must treat all concerns like they are real emergencies." Even the little annoying kids must be respected for being able to come and say that there may be an issue. Mr. P. called the gas company yesterday, they found nothing. The district dudes were out today, and found a broken part that would have nothing to do with a gas smell. This school is located right next to a busy street that has a lot of semi traffic. The gas smell could have come from those or the buses idling in front of the school. Well, one parent was unhappy with the way Mr. P. was handling so he or she called the news station and complained that nothing was being done to prevent anything from happening. The district guys again checked things and made sure all was well. The disaster was hopefully averted. Mr. P. said, "And I am supposed to be the curriculum director in the school. Don't kid yourself." He has had to deal with this for two whole days.The other major problem was that a kid went around to at least six different teachers' rooms and stole money from their purses, drawers, and cabinets. The suspect is a 9 year old boy who just moved into the school. Mr. P. was amazing when he was dealing with this kid and his mom. He used his good calm mannerisms to help keep everyone calm and not let it blow out of proportion. Sadly, there is no dad in the situation, and the mom doesn't appear to have a job. The mom seemed to not have control of her family or her own life. She was there for an hour and hardly said a word as Mr. P. lectured her son, called the police, lectured her, and then lectured her son again (and here I would add that I think Mr. P. spoke for way too long--she and the son both stopped listening after a while, and they were very sick of being there for so long. Nothing that Mr. P. said was wrong or incorrect, or superfluous, but he did go on for too long). She only asked where the courthouse was that her son would have to attend to go before a judge about his four counts of stealing. She did have an opinion when Mr. P., after passionately pleading for this boy to learn his lesson and not do anything like this ever again, and telling her son that he liked him, and would not hold a grudge, said that if this boy kept doing these things, he would not last at this school long. He started to repeat it again when the mother cut him off and said, "You mean he wouldn't be welcome here!" and then she stormed out of the room. She was not a happy camper. I can't understand why she was so upset. Nobody wants a kid that has been stealing things from anyone he can since he was little. She certainly didn't seem to want to have him at home with her. Mr. P. handled this situation very well, but she still was very upset. It is too bad that she will have to find some way to pay the money back if the boy really did give it away to friends, because I don't think she has much money. It was more sad than anything today. That poor family is going to struggle to make a good life. Things are already starting out poorly for them.Mr. P. also had a hard time today with trying to hire new faculty. The district sends out a list of 7 people today who are candidates for a job to, get this, about 40 elementary school principals. All those principals are hiring, and for a school like this one, it is going to be hard for Mr. P. to find someone. Of those 7, only one answered her phone, and she will have an interview tomorrow with Mr. P., and probably 5 more interviews this week with other principals. What a difficult way to find new teachers. I think principals must rely a lot on word of mouth.There is a special education teacher at this school that rocks! I don't know her name, but she seems like a very good person who cares deeply about her students and really tries hard to make sure they all succeed. I am very impressed.Have a Good Life.

Update: My student just came to me with her addition, a couple lines at the bottom, in red.My student wrote this poem for an assignment with very little instruction: You need to write a poem that is at least 20 lines long and then tell me what the main idea of the poem is and tell me what emotions you are using or feeling in the poem.I present it here with no editing, and it will annoy me to death, but that is how she explicitly wanted it. I tell my students (especially in poetry) that it is okay to break the rules as long as 1) you know what rule you are breaking and 2) you know why you are breaking it. She knew the what and why, so here it is:Many people say I hate my life,Why can't someone else be in myplace? Why not live life while you'realive! Think, do you want to be some helpless cat dead on the sidewalk. As yousee, lightning is most peoples' killer anger. It roarsto life & it stays for a while. If you die, many people feel sorry for you, butisn't death what you wanted? So death is what you got! Once you die or kill your-self there are no second chances, you feel angry & stupid for wanting to die allyou do now is sit down & cry! You wishu hadn't but you did, now u wish youstill had lived. There are so many thingsin life to live for so step back and try toignore. People want to bring you downjust look at them and frown, frown, frown.You will be a clown if you want to dieSo don't do it just sit & cry, cry, cry.Your life is over, it was your choice you shouldn't have killed yourself, instead spokeyour voice.I think it is a pretty good poem, and I like that it has an anti-suicide message. This girl has always bewildered me, and I like that she is showing herself in this poem.Have a Good Life.

Darren Draper, my hero, posted a great thought about Professional Development. He runs a great program called OpenPD. He just finished his third session, and reflected about it. I suggest you read it to fully understand my comments here. Darren asks these questions:How do we transform OpenPD so as to attract the kinds of teachers that aren’t the most technologically savvy?How do we garner the participation of additional groups of teachers? Sure, individual participation from wherever you may be is fantastic, but a class of multiple classes would be ideal.What can be done to provide OpenPD participants with local district credit - enabling additional rewards other than the intrinsic? Considering question 3, are such extrinsic rewards really needed or would they only taint the enthusiasm for such an endeavor?@Clay, How can you say RSS is dead? You just said the other day that this is too new! Perhaps RSS is dead to you, but that doesn't mean it is dead to others.Darren and Sarah: Teachers and any other professionals hate PD because it is PD. As my professor this last semester said about a hundred times as she lectured us with the same style of PowerPoint without letting us interact, "The days of a one-stop-dog-and-pony-show Professional Development are over!" When we tried to participate in that discussion, she ignored us and lectured more about the need for collaboration in adult education. (Pardon me, I got distracted by hypocrisy.)If we call it PD, people are going to hate it without knowing anything about it.Also, I have mentioned numerous times that if you want OpenPD to attract normal (non techy) teachers, we need satellite groups of teachers to start inviting other teachers at their school to participate in technology sessions or experiences. My TechnoThursdays has only been successful because they are developing professionally and they don't even know it. It is not even that successful, there are only 4 or 5 people that show up each time. But if you think about all the middle schools in our district doing that, that is nearly a hundred people participating in professional development while enjoying it and not knowing that they are being duped! But it is not about duping them, it is about creating a safe environment for teachers to explore technology and learn new tricks. If they can learn about it at a safe place, they can feel more comfortable trying it out on their own.In addition, we might have some better success if we are not focusing on the bleeding edge of technology. This goes back to Clay's idea that RSS is dead. Maybe since it is dead, some teachers will start using it. Maybe we should look at teaching them how to properly use Excel or their grading programs or some other type of software. My biggest takeaway from TechnoThursdays is that I need to teach relevant topics, and go s-l-o-w. This should be part of any PD.TechnoThursdays went so well today because we talked about a way to specifically integrate technology into their different subject areas in a way that made their lives easier and more productive. That is what gets them coming back.Have a Good Life.

It all started two months ago when I caught three girls cheating on a test. I made a poor decision and ripped up their papers in front of the class. Those three girls have been inciting the rest of the class for a couple months to near rioting. This class has been very difficult to deal with despite many long talks with many students. It is very frustrating. These students know exactly how I feel. Well, they should know. On Friday we had another talk about how they should behave and what is expected of them. Yesterday, I posted this on Twitter:Whenever my students need an assignment, I direct them to my website and tell them to print things off my calendar. I have found out that a lot of them get to my Web site via search engines. What do you suppose is one of the results when you search for Jethro Jones? It is not my Twitter page. Nor does it rise to the top when you search for my name and Twitter. But somehow, the above Twitter post was one of the top results because one of my students asked me today, "Mr. Jones, why do you think we are your worst class?" I asked why she thought that, and she quoted the above Twitter post nearly perfectly and told me that her mom found it when trying to find my website. My class was surprisingly good for the fire drill, even though I didn't expect them to be that good. So, one other girl asked why I hate them, and after being corrected, asked why I dislike them. I made sure that those were their words. I explained that they are my worst-behaved class. It doesn't mean that I hate them or dislike them, but it does mean that they drive me crazy and that they can be very annoying. I told them this. I have not kept it a secret from them before now, and I have not tried to hide it from them. As I said, we have had many long chats about this. This girl's mom was not upset or so the student said. She thought it was pretty funny, actually. The students were good today after another long chat. They also were much better at keeping the others on task. Now that you have the background, here are my thoughts. First, Why were they so upset about this despite the nearly hundreds of times I have talked to them about it? They all knew about the Twitter post before they came into my class, because this girl probably told them all about it in first period. I think they were upset because it was public on the internet, and people could find it. They knew they had the fire drill yesterday, and so they finally understood that I thought they were my worst class (despite the fact that I have been trying to tell them that for weeks). Second, it is hard for these seventh graders to disassociate negative things. Just because they are my worst class does not mean that I hate or dislike them. They don't understand that (hopefully) adults can separate the two feelings. I told them that they annoy and frustrate me, but that as soon as they are doing what they should, those feelings go away. Third, how in the world did she find that. My website was above all the possible Twitter statuses even when I searched for "jethrojones twitter". I guess she could have found her way to my blog but I don't know. Crazy. Fourth, this has definitely reminded me that what I write is available and can be found. I need to remember that. I don't usually post anything controversial, but even things like this, that can be found by the mom of a student in that class, are fair game. So, the real question is should I protect my updates so that I can't be found on Twitter or searches? Have a Good Life.

I don't know where I found this, but it is pretty cool. You make online jigsaw puzzles. No signup required and it is fun. Give the two below a try and let me know what you think. I think I could make a few of these and use them as some sort of learning object in my class. It would at least be a fun way to kill the last five minutes of the day on those days.If you want to try one that is really hard, try this one:AmForkTabernacleHave a Good Life.

I have received a lot of great comments on this post, and I figured I should respond in the comments, but then the comment kept getting longer and longer, so I am just going to do a blog post.I understand what most of you are saying. I think what I am still struggling with is that this class really has been my worst. When they are here, I have a sick feeling. This is my fault. I have been so fed up with their attitude, passive-aggressive behavior, backtalking, and all the other things they have been doing that I just don't know what else to do with them. It was not a motivational thing. I motivated my students with negativity a lot last year, but it is not effective, for me at least.The real benefit to this all happening is that they have actually listened to what I have said since this incident. They are not just blowing me off. I think that we listen to each other more. This week we have been doing state testing, and I was not looking forward to dealing with them while those who finished early goofed off and weren't respectful of the other students. But they have been doing a really good job. I haven't had that sick feeling this week. I know that kids can and will be kids, and I am okay with that. It is the over-the-top aggression and disrespect that drives me nuts. I said it before, do I deserve respect from this class after calling those girls out? They certainly have not thought so.Image Credit: Road to Well BeingPaul, great link! You are right on as usual. Both the students and myself had a blind spot. They were blind to how they were making me feel, and I was blind to how they felt about me. Now that something is out in the open, we can start to have a conversation about what is going on. Hopefully, it will lead to something productive. This class has been much better this week. I don't think that it is because they are trying to please me. In my opinion, they realized that I am telling other people about them, and they don't want to spoken ill of. (And that would be bad, talk about losing trust!) Either that, or they realized that I was serious, and they don't want to be "the worst" at anything. Or maybe, I just got it off my chest, so now I am not as annoyed. Who knows?Have a Good Life.

I have mentioned that I am impressed with my school this year. I enjoy being in a place where most teachers respect and have concern for others. This year we filled out a rubric to see if kids qualify for Foreign Language in 8th grade. My big problem with the rubric is that it tends to put all the good kids in Foreign Language and all the bad kids in Reading. That is not a good combination. I raised a question about it, and although those who I asked seemed to say, "Well, we know more about the situation than you, so stop making waves" they were supportive after I persisted in expressing my concerns. It led to some quick changes to the rubric, and they were able to change things to be better. I suggested we have an application for the students to fill out that would help them decide if Foreign Languages were right for them. This is what it looks like. I am glad that these teachers and counselors are willing to work together to come up with something that is hopefully better.Have a Good Life.

The last couple weeks we have been doing Skype video calls with another 7th grade class in Oregon. All we have been doing is reciting poetry, but it is still fun. My students have been really nervous, which is cool because they are able to perform in front of a real audience. I blocked out the faces of the students. We have been working with a class in Oregon. I think that it is so much fun to do this.Today, we did a video call with a fourth grade boy and his teacher. The boy, D. asked a bunch of questions about Utah. It is part of a big project that the whole class is working on.So, here is what I think of video calls with other classes. This can be a great way for people to learn more about other places and other people. I would really like to do some video calls with some writers since I teach English. It would be very beneficial to be able to learn from them, and use their knowledge and experience to help my students. Maybe my 7th graders are too young for that. I don't know. I do have one friend who is an author, but we just haven't had an opportunity to talk to him, though, thankfully, he is willing. This is something that I want to keep doing next year. The good this about this is that you are not putting anything on the internet, your kids' identities are protected, and you meet new people in the process.Have a Good Life.

I have been using Blogger as my blogging platform of choice for two and a half years. It is very easy to use, pretty fast, and I don't have too many complaints. My biggest complaint is that it doesn't host files. That frustrates me, especially when I try to help teachers use it for school, and they can't attach their files to it. You can use Google Docs, but I have found that Google Docs requires a paradigm shift for most people that they aren't quite willing to make.When I write for The Apple Blog I use Wordpress, which many people have mentioned is much better than Blogger. So far, I do like it a lot. It works well if you know a little more about computers because you can customize it much more than you can Blogger. Blogger is much more simple, and that has its own appeal as well.Do you know which platform I refuse to use? Typepad. And here is why: their comment system stinks! Whenever I want to post a comment, I click the submit button. The Web site sends the request to show me a page that says my comment has been submitted, so I think it is all done. Well, that is wrong, because this happens every time: about 20 minutes later, I browse through my tabs to see what is open, sometimes to see if anyone has responded to my comments. When I do this on a Typepad blog, I get the screen below:It is still waiting for me to put in the correct Captcha letters/numbers. Despite the fact that I hate these things, I always mess up the Typepad Captcha. In the picture above, can you see where I messed up? I sure can't. But, sure enough, I had to enter another response to this Captcha. So this happens every time I post a comment on a Typepad blog. I don't think I have ever entered the Captcha correctly on the first try. By the third try, I just give up. Typepad makes it so hard to leave a comment, it is just ridiculous.If they make it so hard to leave a comment, I can only imagine how difficult it must be to even enter a post! Typepad can do some things to make it a better system:Have the anti-spam question, Captcha, or whatever it is, on the page where you leave your comment. Don't make us think there just isn't one.Change the Captcha system. Perhaps it times out after too much time. It is easy to let it sit there for a while when you expect your comment to just appear.Just these two changes would, I am sure, increase the amount of comments on posts. Am I alone here, or do you share my feelings?Have a Good Life.