I am checking this out right now; thanks!

It is a long story, but I, a teacher untrained in science teaching, is teaching a six-week chemistry class to one student over the summer. One lab a week, everything else is independent. To make things more interesting, the student is an English-language learner. This is understandably going to be a broad overview, but I don't want it to be boring and just reading. Suggestions?

Here is a link to a 14-day free trial with Cook's Illustrated cooking class online: http://www.testkitchenschool.com/?Extcode=E2DP2BA00&email=suzannah314%40msn.com Then maybe you can get into the cookbooks!

I will let them know. One of them has a 9th grade student who is doing horribly academically, but their youngest is doing well and would have to intentionally bomb the annual test to be held back (and then might not be held back anyway). Their issue is the maturity level of the kids; they want them to have another year of age. The other person has a small kid who is a great wrestler but is small, and he wants him to have some more age. He also has a late birthday (at the end of the school year), so that won't matter. I guess my main concern is for the kids and how they might feel being "held back" (although "re-graded" sounds better:)). Statisically speaking, too, whenever you hold back a student, their chances of graduating go down significantly (regardless of their schooling experience).

I have a couple acquaintances that want to hold their student-athletes back a year for various reasons (emotional development being one, size being another). Is this ethical? Legal? I am not being judgmental, I promise. I just have no experience with this and was wondering if anyone else has, one way or the other. Thanks!

Yarg. To my mind, this is the dumbed-down approach to schooling these days, as well as proof positive of its utter abstraction. Why not teach addition and subtraction with money and a checkbook? Banks will come to the classroom with check registers (and other goodies) and lead the class for you. This is the reason we have been giving DD an allowance since she was five (just four quarters a week to start). #1: so when she asked for stuff (like the junk by every cash register in creation) we could say, "Did you bring your money?" and #2: so she could learn what it meant to save and count in a real way. No reason why classes can't do this, too.

Rude. I tell my DH and my DD that when I leave and will be spending time with someone else that unless it is an emergency please do not call or text. I also hate it when people check out somewhere, talking on the phone, not acknowledging the clerk. Rude. If anything is sending our society to hell in a handbasket, more than anything it is a lack of basic common courtesy.

My 11-year old can do all of these things. I, myself, am more of a humanities girl but have grown to appreciate the puzzle qualities of higher math as I re-learn it to assist my students. Let's put this in perspective, though. Just as most adults will never use their uncanny ability to parse symbolism in Joyce, most adults will also not have to solve proofs (prove proofs? Math terms?). The headline is alarmist, but, in reality, people who can capably add, subtract, multiply and divide whole numbers, decimals, fractions and percents can function just fine their entire lives, in just the same way as people who can read a newspaper or a weekly news magazine will be fine. Both of these skillsets can be acquired by the end of age 11. Aiming low, but I think the headline is more to sell papers.

As a teacher who left public school two years ago to start my own school, I can tell you that the only thing he will regret is not leaving sooner. No matter what he does, it will take him some time to de-institutionalize and get out of the PS mentality, just like when you pull a kid out. I, too, would completely rather live in my car (and it's about 50-50 about living on the street) than go back to teaching in a public school.

That was my concern about the bilingual materials. I think immersion is the best way to go, but I don't want her to be frustrated by not understanding either, and there are times where I need her to be working independently. I thought maybe judicious use of them would be okay, but I am going to keep looking before I do that, even if it is just to get use through this first week while I keep researching. I have a totally independent student (with small questions every now and then) and another one who is waaaaaaay to dependent (for his age and his ability), so I need to be able to figure out beneficial things for her to do while I continue to attempt to help the latter student be more independent (plus he has been absent for a week, so there is catching up). I definitely want her to be comfortable speaking first so we can communicate and get to know her, but my other goal is to help her get her driver's license, and there is an online class she needs to take for that that is in English, and she needs to be able to read all of the signs, so we are working on that, too. She can't even get a learner's permit until she can read, so if we can get her there by the middle of the summer I will be really happy!! I also think that her writing skills in her native language are not fabulous. I had her write a short essay introducing herself in Spanish and then her aunt translated it. The structure is there, but there isn't much beyond that. I'd like to develop her writing in both languages, but that is certainly a discussion for next year.

Hybrid means that I am an accredited private school with three students, so everyone has their own curriculum, like a homeschool (except the sciences, which we all do together and I tier based on level, not age) , and we are multi-age (6th-12th grade). I have students four days a week in my home, and they work independently at their home one day a week. Next year they will be here three days, two at home. We do lots of field experiences, run a food pantry and are designing a community garden, so she will have tons of practical opportunities to speak English. No English instruction in Nicaragua; she understands very simple phrases but completely lacks vocabulary to respond. She laughs at my horrible Spanish and says she is ready to work hard. Her family is fabulous and very supportive, but they only speak Spanish at home. Period. I think it is a philosophical thing (aunt and uncle are fluent English/Spanish and run a translation service). Thank you! Some place to start, even if it is just for week 1. I was thinking about getting her a CD/book combination that is in Spanish (as opposed to me just teaching in English) to get her started, too. We can have simple conversations in English, and she can use the CD to reinforce and learn vocabulary. I am thinking journals might be helpful. Start with simple phrases ("I met _____." "I ate______." "We read_____.") and work up to longer writing. This way she can see how much she is growing, too. We are also labeling everything in the house on Tuesday in English, French and Spanish (the two other students are learning French). She likes music and her two favorite bands are American, so I am thinking about using those lyrics to help her learn, too. She is very quiet, so I am hoping once she gets to know us a little more she will be more confident, too. I figure if I keep talking my crappy Spanish sometimes she will realize it is okay to make mistakes. :)

I agree; not possible to teach this all in English. I do have access to a translation service, and they will translate all biology materials for me. I figure we can start with basic things that rely on visuals (studying cells and designing cell models) and save text-heavy things for later (like next school year after nine months of intensive English). I may just get her a translated textbook and have her continue independently; she is a very smart girl who happens to not speak English, and I'd love to continue to develop her Spanish, too.

I hate to say this, especially since I am in the fresh garden veg-natural meat-fresh eggs-enjoy food camp, but if you have not had a doughnut cheeseburger, you don't know what you are missing. I have made these exactly twice, both as a special requested meal, with Krispy Kreme doughnuts, grass-fed beef, bacon from a friend's hog, organic cheddar cheese and (wait for it) a fried egg from our hens. I could only eat half of one, but my kid ate a whole one and my husband ate two. They were amazing. Over-the-top? Completely. Nothing you would ever eat daily. We don't eat fast food, we rarely eat out and, with the exception of the holiday season when we are cookie-bakings fools, we try to keep everything pretty healthy (natural, unprocessed and homemade). The doughnut cheeseburger is an anomaly. But delicious.:)

Yikes. My small hybrid school is enrolling a 17-year old ESL student who starts Tuesday; she has very little English and would be halway between 10th and 11th grade in a Nicaraguan school (where she is from). What would you start with, and how? I need a mixture of one-on-one speaking work, independent speaking and writing, plus some American culture stuff. She comes from a teeny town in Nicaragua and will ahve been in the US for exactly one week when she starts here. My main focus with her is obviously English acquisition, but she has a math program in Spanish and we would like to integrate her into biology as soon as possible. I don't have any problems ordering materials, but I do need something that I can use immediately. I also don't mind making my own materials, but I need some suggestions to get started. I have started an ESL class online (professional development) when I thought this student might be a possibility, but I where to start is the big question. There is so much information! TIA for any and all help.

Better than Son of Citation Machine: www.easybib.com They organize your list, look most of it up for you and now have a function where you can add annotations. I would have cut a finger off for this doing my Master's thesis, but, alas, it was not yet in existence. :)

My mom lives in PA, Lancaster County, near many Amish communities (there is buggy parking at her grocery store); it is one of the worst areas in the country for puppy mills in the country.

I don't know why you need to pay for this. Here are two fabulous websites: http://www.texaspsp.org/toolkit/GT_Teacher_Toolkit.html http://www.utm.utoronto.ca/~dwhite/papers.htm (focuses on MLA; goes through the writing process and breaks down each stage)

And animal abuse. We just rescued an old carriage horse from one of the "better" communities, and he was a far cry from well-kept. Their horses are their lifeblood, and they treat them horribly, selling them to kill buyers when they can no longer perform their duties (instead of rehoming them). Of course there are exceptions to this, but they are few and far between. There are also instances of child abuse and molestation that are not reported because the community is so isolated from others. Abuse is reported at an even lower rate than in mainstream society.

Darwin, ironically, was a Christian.

Our best biology labs have been when we start with a structure and then allow ourselves to explore, going off the original lesson if necessary. Not only do we use the actual hands-on lab, but if we can't find or see whatever we are supposed to see, we supplement while doing th elab with online resources. Sometimes if we see online what we are supposed to see under the microscope then it is easier. Sometimes, too, we will run across something from an old lab and it will suddenly click. Biology has been much more successful since we explored based on our questions, not just a curriculum, and we have "covered" everything a regular class would cover so far - maybe not in the exact same order, but with plenty of depth and all the vocabulary intact, and much more fun!!

Love The Artist's Way, in a very removed way, since I struggle with discipline in that regard also. I just wrote a blog about motivation in general and the first paragraph is how I am avoiding something by blogging (here). I did incorporate the book suggestions, but I do need to add The Artist's Way, too. We sat down this morning and broke his list of tasks down into smaller chunks that he can complete and check off. I told him he needed to finish these things he started and then we would re-evauate what we are doing this year. I also took him outside to wander with the chickens and just reconnected with him a bit. I think it is really important for him to understand how much I actually like him.

I do think this may be the direction we are headed in, except I am not sure he is motivated enough to complete things like these (some of which we have already done, with much enthusiasm but mixed results). Even the Lego camera (a real, working, camera with 35 mm film!!) was like pulling teeth, and he LOVED it. He still has a final set of pictures that he has not developed because it requires him to follow through and finish, and this is from last May. I know it is time for something different, though. We went through this all last year until the very end, when a switch flipped and he got super motivated to do things. The work didn't change, his life didn't change, nothing changed - he just decided to do the work. I have already told him that we are not spending another year doing nothing, so we need to figure this out. I am down with switching what he is doing, but he needs to finish these few assignments before I let him off the hook to design new things. He has never had an adult follow through, and I am going to be that adult (yay, me. :glare: I guess that's what I get paid for though, right?) I do really like this kid, though. He is very, very good people, a big brother to my only child, and an all around nice guy. He has a great sense of humor, is great with figuring things out, and I think he will pull through this. Just trying to figure out the best way for him so he can have success and feel good about himself.

Phew. Lots of stuff to reply to! :) This. I am not blaming the parent (singular). Could she be doing more, and would it make a big diffference? Probably. But my main issue is changing what I can change while he is with me. And yes, he has been coddled and passed along in PS, which is why he wants to go back and do what is easy. I am not sure this is feasible. This is the other limitation of my school. I am actually a school, accredited, and I am not interested in simply passing him through. Not that you are suggesting this, but I don't know how I could make this work. A puzzler. I will think about it, though. I am sort of doing this with my child (grades for her don't "count" yet, though. She is only in middle school). That is the thing - even the things he is interested in he will not follow through on (unless it is airsoft guns or StumbleUpon, which he is on for hours. Trying to capitalize on that somehow). That is really one of the premises of my school - that school reflects real life. I try to connect everything we do to the world. Sometimes it isn't possible, but we try.

I am not sure if he is aware exactly how challenging his college of choice is, but it is very difficult to get into, as is his career choice, which requires many years of college, internships and residencies (he wants to be a vet). We are working on study strategies (we did this last year also, but it only works if you implement the strategies!!), and I do offer six AP classes. He has the tools, but I think we will review them again. If you never try, then you can never fail, right? The kids are with me four days a week, and he does not do anything on the days he is not with me (or in the evening if we need to finish something from the day, like a lab write up). He is going to miss a lab tomorrow because he is unprepared, and a play the next day for the same reason. I don't think I should have to be all over him, but at this point he needs major supervision, so that's what is happening right now. At this point, I have considered trying to get him into an internship or volunteer situation, but transportation is difficult for his mom. I like the idea of a mentor. If I tell her to read it she will, but I don't see anything new in there. I will check it out. He is medicated, and when he is not, as long as I know, we can work around it (for a period of time, but not indefinitely), but there are other issues (too much sugar, bad diet, etc). I am working on writing up a list of strategies that he can use to stay focused, but there is not much out there. He is seriously impacted by this issue. His mom is inconsistent with that as well. I know I am being paid to teach him, and I am perfectly within my rights to say I can't work with him, but I don't want to. He would be bullied and swallowed up in public high school, and he would be getting the same grades but learning nothing. At least here he gets to have some success (he's our Stock Market Game leader and resident fixit-man. He's pretty brilliant with that. Made a Lego 35 mm camera last year just looking at the picture) and we are more personal and hands-on than anywhere else (including other private schools with 20 kids per class). I want to work with him, and I hope we can figure something out. Thanks for the comments and suggestions. I appreciate the insights and experiences you are sharing!!

The child was totally and utterly failed by gifted ed system in PS; he is a twice-exceptional (ADHD, pretty profound) and he got worksheets in PS. We have been talking about the college he wants to go to, and I am trying to provide him with lots of hands-on things, but he has refused to do even things he likes. We do talk frequently about the future; I do with all of the students, and I always teach up (they are all diagnosed as "gifted," with varying degrees of laziness and commitment. I can tell how long a student has been in public school by how little they are willing to do).