Ben Guest’s Blog

Violence

nobody@vox.com(Mississippi Teacher Corps) — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 12:53:48 -0700

Write-up of a study, courtesy of Freakonomics, that examines the educational impact of domestic violence:

The costs of this dysfunction are even more profound. Kids exposed to domestic violence definitely do have lower reading and math scores and greater disciplinary problems. But the effects of this dysfunction are not limited to the direct victims of this violence: kids exposed to kids exposed to domestic violence also have lower test scores and more disciplinary infractions.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Governor William Winter

nobody@vox.com(Mississippi Teacher Corps) — Sat, 24 May 2008 10:38:30 -0700

Former Mississippi Governor William Winter gives the keynote address at the 2005 Mississippi Teacher Corps Reunion. The next MTC Reunion is scheduled for July 10th and 11th, 2009. Interesting side-note, Gov. Winter served as a mentor to former President Bill Clinton, when Clinton was Governor of Arkansas...

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

One Teacher

nobody@vox.com(Mississippi Teacher Corps) — Thu, 22 May 2008 06:42:13 -0700

Dr. Andy Mullins, co-director of the Mississippi Teacher Corps, talks about the power of one teacher to change a life. See more clips from the same talk here. See Governor William Winter talking about, I presume, the same student here (from the MTC 2005 Reunion):

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Party

nobody@vox.com(Mississippi Teacher Corps) — Wed, 14 May 2008 15:52:51 -0700

Another hypothetical from one of the first-years:

After a long day at work you are invited to a party at a social club in the small, rural town where you teach and live. Upon arrival at the party's venue the first person you see is a student of yours. You soon find out that the party is a birthday party for the student's father. She is helping set-up and music is playing inside the social club while alcohol is being brought in by the caseload. The student's father thanks you fervently for coming and says that once the kids leave you should let loose and get down (meaning drink, dance or do more with the scantily clad women on their way, and engage in weekday/work night tomfoolery). To top it off your principal, a good friend of the birthday man, soon shows up and pours himself the first of what may be numerous alcoholic drinks as he slaps you on the back. What do you do?

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Links

nobody@vox.com(Mississippi Teacher Corps) — Sun, 11 May 2008 10:19:50 -0700

Three links about teaching in America:

High School teacher fired after these photos appeared online. Yet more evidence of America's insane prudishness...

How do you, as a teacher, feel about cell phones in school? Would you feel differently if you were a student? A parent?

Interesting organization: The Center for Teaching Quality. I haven't had time to read through much of the website but, to me, the solution improving teacher quality is simple. Make the starting salary of a public school teacher $100,000. Make the ceiling $2,000,000. Watch teacher quality sky-rocket.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

MAEP

nobody@vox.com(Mississippi Teacher Corps) — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 06:54:45 -0700

MAEP, the basic funding formula for K-12 education in Mississippi, was fully funded today. Key quote: This is the first time lawmakers have fully funded MAEP, a complex formula that provides money to schools to meet midlevel performance goals, outside of a statewide election year. The program was put into state law in the 1990s.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

The Box Cutter

nobody@vox.com(Mississippi Teacher Corps) — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 08:14:41 -0700

Hypothetical: One of your best students, a conscientious and hard-working senior with good grades, a great attitude, and a full academic scholarship to Mississippi State, stops by your classroom during homeroom and asks to speak to you in the hallway. Once in the hallway, he says that he came to school directly from his early-morning job at the grocery store where he unloads and opens boxes. He takes a box cutter out of his jeans and says, "I forgot to leave this at work. Can you hold it for me? If I'm caught with it I will get in trouble."

District policy and state law mandate zero tolerance for any weapons, including knives and box cutters, on school grounds. The student, if caught with a box cutter, no matter how benign his reason, will automatically be expelled from school for the year. Furthermore, having witnessed a student with a box cutter on school grounds, you now have a legal obligation to report him to the administration. What do you do?

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Answer 'C'

nobody@vox.com(Mississippi Teacher Corps) — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 08:55:25 -0700

Hypothetical: You are a first-year MTC teacher. While proctoring a state test another teacher comes in the room and tells the students, "Question 12 is tricky. Be careful. Answer 'c' is incorrect." The teacher leaves and the students go back to the test, presumably not answering 'c' on question 12. What do you do?

Bonus Points: Answer Mike's hypothetical regarding this NYT article.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Advice

nobody@vox.com(Mississippi Teacher Corps) — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 06:00:50 -0700

You are a young, female teacher from "up north." You teach high school Biology in a small Delta community with one church for every 30 residents. Several of your female students have discreetly asked you for advice on various birth-control measures. School district policy is to promote abstinence-only. Furthermore, the community, spurred on by the churches, and in spite of the high teen pregnancy rate, is strongly in favor of abstinence-only measures. You trust the teens to keep your confidence, but at the same time they are teenagers and teenagers talk. You are worried that if you are discovered to have contradicted the official school policy, and the unofficial community norms, you will be ostracized and perhaps even lose your job. What advice do you give?

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

The 12th Man

nobody@vox.com(Mississippi Teacher Corps) — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 05:24:41 -0700

I like these "hypothetical" situations, so much so that I may try to incorporate them into the summer training. At the very least, I've found next month's blog topic. In any event, here is another one:

You are the head coach of the high school basketball team in a small town. You have 12 uniforms (spots) to give out. The 12th spot comes down to a) Johnny, a hard working kid with a good attitude and no basketball ability who comes from a poor family or b) Tommy, a kid with some talent and an irritating me-first attitude who is the son of an influential school board member.

Who makes the team?

Read and post comments | Send to a friend