No Child Left Behind

Yesterday, I finally finished (praise the LORD!!!) my CLAD course work and photo copied it, mailed it off to University of San Diego and celebrated with an iced coffee from Pete's Coffee. That is 12 college units off my back and now I can sleep better at night. Thanks be to God, this child will not be left behind (as a teacher and as a child of God- two completely different issues).

I have been working on this course work for several years now and basically have not applied myself as faithfully as I should have. This summer I have spent many of my summer vacation hours on finishing the course work. Last week I received a dreadful letter from my school district (I am sure there were hundreds of teachers in my district who received the same letter and thousands in the state of California who received the same type of letter from their districts), a letter in which I fully deserved. Let me quote one paragraph from the letter,

"Recent legislation has required the _____ Unified School District to audit all credential holders to make certain that credentialed teachers working with English Learners have proper certification. As a classroom teacher, if you have an English Learner in your class, an English Learner certificate is required. _____ schools are wonderfully diverse and as such, English
Learners are throughout most, if not all of our classes. If you do not have the proper certification, the State of California maintains you are not properly credentialed to teach the class and you could be transferred or dismissed".

The CLAD certification is now federally required of all teachers teaching in the public school setting, regardless of the subject that you teach, under the No Child Left Behind law (also known as NCLB). There are many options that I could have chosen from to satisfy the requirement. I chose the independent course work, mainly because I am a terrible test taker when it involves regurgitating massive amounts of information in written form. Sadly, when I received my initial teaching credential, the CLAD was not embedded in my credential. While in the credential program in college I remember being advised not to receive the CLAD certification because "you will NEVER need it as a PE teacher". My classmates who received the CLAD certification only had to pay an extra fee, were in the same classes with me and had to write one extra paper. Now the CLAD is embedded in every credential program.

I have my opinions on federal policies and laws but I often keep those critiques to myself. The general premise of NCLB is good and is a great goal to have for our students but there are some major flaws in the law. I will briefly discuss only a few of the problems of the law as they directly pertain to my teaching world and myself.

Problem 1- the law expects that ALL students, regardless of mental ability, language barriers, home life (I could devote a whole new blog page to the issues of home life or lack of home life), behavior and educational background, will be proficient in the areas of reading and mathematics by passing standardized tests in those areas. There are so many issues that strike out at me that my mind screams "impossible". Again, I am only going to talk about a few of the things I listed above. Working with disabled children, mentally and physically disabled, has been part of my teaching career since before I started teaching. These precious children who are not capable of performing mentally at the federal standard are included in this mandate. More precious children who are emigrants to America for a better way way of life are under this law. These children most often do not speak the English language and they are expected to perform well on the standardized tests that are in English. Yes, they should learn the language and should be given the opportunity to succeed in the educational environment. Then we have the students that are transferring from the inner city to suburban schools. These precious students have had a life of crime, drugs, violence, and any kind of sin imaginable all around them. They may not even know what it means to have a safe place in their home where they can sit down and study to do homework. Please don't get me wrong, I don't want to make excuses for any of these precious children but blankly say that NO CHILD WILL BE LEFT BEHIND is a very far cry from what will happen by 2010 (not sure if that is the correct date but that is what sticks in my mind). There are so many issues that need to be addressed, funded and planned out before every child will be up to par. I think the current law will be going under a revision sometime this year, thankfully.

Problem 2- the law states that all teachers will be "highly qualified to teach" to insure that no child will be left behind. Again, this is a great premise of the law and in theory is really good but the law's definition of being "highly qualified" has major flaws. Let me give you a little background of my educational history before I talk about being "highly qualified". I studied at California State University, Northridge. My degree was a BS in Kinesiology with an emphasis in Adapted Physical Education. I hold two teaching credentials- a clear teaching credential preK-12th grade in Physical Education and a lifetime credential in Adapted Physical Education preK-college. My undergraduate degree was a very rigorous and intense program. A sampling of my classes: anatomy, physiology, exercise physiology, motor learning and control, sports socialology, sports psychology, motor development, structural biomechanics, and 30 units of my adapted PE courses. After my BS degree, I was in the credential program for a year and half. Let me continue with my teaching experience. My first full year of teaching started in '94 and I was an itinerant adapted physical education specialist (I traveled to 7 schools and had a case load of 90). The next 3 years I taught 7th grade bilingual health/biology, PE and APE, the next 2 years just PE and APE, and for the last 8 years just PE (the disabled students are integrated into my PE classes). I have been teaching for 13 years. 8 of those years I have been the PE department chair person. Back to NCLB and being "highly qualified". Last year the district came in a held a meeting with all the teachers. We needed to fill out paperwork determining if we were "highly qualified" according to the NCLB law. The paper work covered several different areas: subject taught, years teaching, being department chair person, credentials held, STUL evaluations, and other areas. It was based on a point system. Almost everyone sitting in that room were credentialed teachers and after filling out the paper work were classified as "highly qualified", except every single PE teacher. The law allowed math, science, ART, MUSIC, English. . . to be "highly qualified" but not the PE teachers. We sat there dumbfounded because now our jobs were on the line. The law states if you are not highly qualified that you should not be teaching students (because they could be left behind, and remember NO Child Will Be Left Behind) and that we could lose our jobs. As a unified group of PE teachers we worked long and hard with the district and finally received paperwork that said we were "highly qualified". Oh thank the Lord.

Anyway, long post, sorry. What does this all have to do with CLAD? As teachers we need to have the techniques to teach English Language Learners (ELL) so that these students have equal opportunity to not be left behind.

Lord's Day Gleanings

All of my posts thus far have not been of much substance, only wood, hay and stubble. I had a wonderful Lord's Day yesterday and wanted to share some of it with you, especially the lyrics to some of the worship songs we sang. Worship is not only the music and the songs but everything that pertains to attending church. Church is a time when we go to meet with the Holy and Living God, where He meets with me and the body of Christ collectively, where our hearts are pricked and encouraged, where we have deep and true fellowship with other believers, where we hear God's Word proclaimed and expounded, where we can sing to our Savior reflecting on what He has done on our behalf, and where we start our week to live our lives for His glory to the world around us.

I was awestruck by the combination of songs that we sang. We sang Amazing Grace, I Will Glory in My Redeemer, You Are My All in All, Behold the Lamb, Lamb of God, Alas! And Did My Savior Bleed?, and Nothing but the Blood. The combination of songs were a perfect primer for my soul to sit and listen to the sermon and to continue to worship. Here are the lyrics to a few of the songs.

I Will Glory in My Redeemer- Steve and Vicki Cook, 2001 PDI Worship.

I will glory in my Redeemer, Whose priceless blood has ransomed me.
Mine was the sin that drove the bitter nails and hung Him on that judgment tree.

I will glory in my Redeemer, Who crushed the power of sin and death;

My only Savior before the Holy Judge, the Lamb Who is my Righteousness,

The Lamb Who is my Righteousness.

I will glory in my Redeemer, my life He bought, my love He owns.

I have no longings for another, I'm satisfied in Him alone.

I will glory in my Redeemer, His faithfulness, my standing place.

Though foes are mighty and rush upon me, my feet are firm, held by His grace.

My feet are firm, held by His grace.

I will glory in my Redeemer, Who carries me on eagle's wings.

He crowns my life with lovingkindness, His triumph song I'll ever sing.

I will glory in my Redeemer, Who waits for me at gates of gold,

And when He calls me it will be paradise, His face forever to behold,

His face forever to behold,

His face forever to behold!

Behold the Lamb- Mark Altrogge, 2000 PDI Praise.

Behold the Lamb silent before His accusers

As thorns are pressed into His brow

They lift Him up, O, see the spikes that hold Him

Redeeming blood flows down

But look again, the cross stands empty now, and He is risen!

Behold the Lamb see Him crowned with glory

Behold the Lamb cast your crowns before Him

Crying, "Holy, holy is the Lamb"

Behold the Lamb carrying all our transgressions

He freely takes our place,

Endures the lash, the mocking and the laughter

Of those He dies to save

But look again, the cross stands empty now, and He is risen!

Alas! And Did My Savior Bleed- Lyrics by Issac Watts, music by Bob Kauflin, 1997 PDI Praise.

Alas! And did my Savior bleed, and did my Sovereign die!

Would He devote that sacred head fro such a worm as I!

Was it for sins that I had done He groaned upon the tree,

Amazing pity! Grace unknown! And love beyond degree!

My God, why would You shed Your blood so pure and undefiled

To make a sinful one like me Your chosen precious child?

Well might the sun in darkness hide, and shut His glories in,

When Christ, the mighty Maker died for man the creature's sin.

Thus might I hide my blushing face while His dear cross appears,

Dissolve my heart in thankfulness, and melt my eyes in tears.

Procrastination

Right now I have a big, bad case of procrastination. I would rather be updating this blog page than working on finishing up my CLAD certification course work. My heart is convicted just by admitting my procrastination here that I am going to sit my bottom down in a chair and get busy. Think I will have a party when I am completely finished with CLAD, in which you are invited.

Garden Bounty

And the winners for the best tomatoes are . . . Celebrity for the reds and the Golden Nugget Hybrid for the golds. My garden has produced blue ribbon winners this year and has been bountiful and mouth watering. My garden has several different types of tomatoes and other yummies. I planted 6 different types of tomatoes and had several volunteers from last year's garden. Seven plants have gone to live and produce at other homes. Every day I bring in a dozen or so. Sometimes I go out to the garden to eat right off the vine. Nothing more yummy than home grown tomatoes.

Summertime tomatoes are the key ingredient for 2 of my favorite dishes. The first is BLAT sandwiches (bacon, lettuce, avocado and tomato) with no mayo but some sort of salad dressing instead. These are so perfect on a hot summer night. The second I call "Summertime Tomato Salad". It is close to an Italian salad. You start by slicing fresh mozzarella cheese and placing it on a colorful serving plate. Then, thinly slice fresh sweet basil and 3-5 fresh tomatoes (so pretty if you have different types and colors of tomatoes). Place basil and tomato slices on top of cheese. Season with ground pepper and sea salt. Drizzle a little EVOO (Rachel Ray fans know this well- Extra Virgin Olive Oil) and balsamic vinegar over the top. Almost melts in your mouth.

If you are in my nook of the woods, come on by and pick up some tomatoes. I've got plenty to share. You can decide if they are blue ribbon winners!

Attempting to be a Blogger

Hello all,

Welcome to my blog page! Glad you stopped by for a visit. Anyone who knows me is well aware that I am not the most computer literate but. . . . I was told by my good friend Sandi that it is easy as a piece of cake. Whatever does that mean? I will take a piece of Angel Food cake with berries on the side, please, this is my favorite. Thanks Sandi for helping me to get all set up.

So, I am now part of the blogger world. Almost feel as if I have arrived at a grand mile stone. Yes, a little behind the times but I don't think that I am that far behind the world with blogging. I hope my joining the blogging world is not like the fashion world, in that I see the new style of shoes, I finally get a pair when the prices go down only to find out that the style has already gone by the wayside.

Don't think I will have any main theme of all my posts but just random thoughts. There might be posts sharing about what God is doing in my life, terrible drivers on the road, home improvements, stories of my precious niece, venting over the San Francisco Giants losing streak (they are doing really poorly this year), funny things my middle school students do, good recipes and anything else that is on my mind. If you have any blogging advise please pass it along.

Enough for tonight. As you will notice this is posted before any of you even know that I have a blog page. But I am tired. That's a whole post in it's self on my tiredness at night time.

My New Blog!

Hey everybody! I'm online! More to come....