Never mind the homework, here's the Vegan Teacher

I’m appearing at my first attendance board meeting this week. One of my students hasn’t been at school for over 4 months and she’s barely getting anything done with my help. Truth be told, it’s a really weird situation and I can’t really tell if it’s a result of her being consistently ill or if she’s just learned how to get out of having to go to school. So I’ve been asked by the principal to go to this thing and say my piece. I feel like a bit of a cop, but everyone wants what’s best for this girl. If she’s held back again, she will be turning 13 in grade 5. It would probably not be that great for her self esteem, but I’m sure it would be worse if she went into grade 6 not knowing how to do simple multiplication questions.

Work with my other students is going rather swimmingly. I was hoping the school would keep me on for a couple more weeks in July to do some marking, but it’s not in the budget. This is ok though because I could really use a week or two to finalize the book. A final edit, pictures, design and print the cover; these kinds of things when you’re doing it all yourself take a tremendous amount of time.

In other news, I am currently fascinated by the current demonstrations in Iran. That is how you deal with a fraudulent election. I wish some of that spirit would rub off on the people in the west who seem to pacified by bad television and bad food to react to similar situations. I remember when Bush “won” the first time, I expected Al Gore to fight for a recount. Alas, he conceded defeat a few days later. Same story with John Kerry. But I guess if those elections turned out differently, the pendulum wouldn’t have swung so far to the otherside last year.

Speaking of pendulums as metaphors, this province is getting rid of coding. I think I’ve talked about the issue before, how every student seems to be coded with something to make them easier to deal with (you can find some examples here). As of next year, this system will cease to exist. In fact, I’ve heard that so will the term special needs. Some of the teachers I’ve talked to are very bent out of shape over this. I’m not sure what to think. In some ways, I think coding students is like treating them as little products with defects, taking the human-ness out of them. This new way of looking at things is supposed to create more inclusive classrooms, which again I can totally get behind. The thing I’m not sure about is how it will affect students with behavioural issues. You simply cannot have some students in the same class as your regular kids. It can be really, really bad news. I’m sure I’ll learn all about how things are going to be changing this summer, part of my professional development and all. Ha.

Anyways, off to sub some elementary this afternoon. It’s another beautiful day so I’m going to scoot.