Role Models

I love bad movies. I find them to be so relaxing because I know exactly what will happen in the end. Once you get the “boy-meets girl, boy-loses-girl, boy-gets-girl back” formula, you can just relax and watch the predictable nonsense ensue. I always turn to my movie-goer friend during romantic comedies and sarcastically ask, “I wonder if they will end up together in the end?!” Or in any teen movie, “I wonder if the moral of the story will be to ‘be yourself!’”

Well this past week, I dragged my fiancé to “Role Models” starring Paul Rudd. It’s a classic tale of buffoonery in which two loser guys are court-ordered to volunteer in a mentoring program. I convinced him that I needed to go for work purposes. You know, I need to know about role models and such. I have to say, as a purveyor of fine bad movies, this one gets my Best Of 2008 vote. I actually laughed out loud on multiple occasions; I’m ashamed to say. In one such scene, the two loser “adults” begin smacking each other in the car and then two seconds later, their two kids they’re supposed to be role models for start smacking each other around for no reason.

Now it’s common knowledge that kids learn by observing and model the behaviors of those around them. But how important are “role models” anyway? Does it really make that big of a difference? I am thinking specifically of my young African American students who now have an African American President-elect. How big of a difference can Obama really make?

The research on social learning (learning by observing others) would say that the higher status the role model, the more kids will try to emulate them. That is the reason that advertisers use Michael Jordan to sell absolutely everything, including underwear, and not Michael Jenkins, your neighbor.* So will Obama’s high status job get kids interested in politics or someday running for office? Maybe, maybe not, but it will certainly give more options in role models to emulate, and that is a good thing.

*Plus, “Be like Jenkins!” is just not catchy.

Happy! Happy! Joy! Joy!

You know what is lacking in urban schools sometimes? Happy people. Now I recently discovered that happiness is contagious and I would really like some people at work to get infected with a serious case.

I entered one of my schools to find that someone had gotten all festive on me and put up holiday lights, a Christmas tree (I know, I know, separation of church and state), and even a whole family of moving-light-up-reindeer. The reindeer were all awkwardly grazing on fluffy white "snow" made of quilting batting that had some extra sparkle in it for good measure. There was a sweet little tree with fake packages under it and everything. Despite the clear Christmas bias over other holidays, I thought that it was nice for someone to try to spruce (get it?) up the foyer for the holidays, and I commented on it to a co-worker.

Me: Wow! This place is all festive!
CW: Festive. At this school? Ha. (Snorts)
Me: Um, I was referring not to the school in general, but to all the lights and the cute animatronic rein…
CW: (Walks away before I can finish)
Me: (to self, quietly) Reindeer.

Sheesh! There’s only a week left until break! ‘Tis the season? No? Okay fine, I’ll go hang out with happy people then. Please excuse me while I look for the reindeer lover and thank him or her for making me happy today.

Works for Me Wednesday: Making Studying Fun

Hi Moms from "Rocks in My Dryer!" I have just discovered your "Works for Me" links and I hope you'll enjoy a few tips from a school psychologist on how to make studying for a test with your child more fun. These two links are geared for teachers, but are easily adapted to homework sessions at home.

SWATTERS!

DINGERS!

For everyone else, go on and enjoy them a second time. New Study Skill Tip on the way for Friday's post. Stay tuned!

Obama on Climate Control

My fiancé and I have a tradition of watching Meet The Press every Sunday to catch up on the state of our nation.* It is mandatory that I have at least one cup of coffee in hand prior to activating the TiVo. The TiVo is necessary for when we want to pause to jump in on the commentary, because we take our MTP very seriously and do not want to miss anything. We do fast forward through haters and Negative Neds/Nancys, through lately I like to hear what they have to say, so I can throw pillow and whatnot at the tele. It really jump-starts my Sunday.

Today, Obama was on, and I told fiancé that he better at least say one thing about Education to give me some hope.** After 55 minutes of his plans to save the world economy, fix our global climate crisis, and end all wars, (all perfectly reasonable goals), I nearly spilled my coffee when he also said he would make it a priority to rebuild our schools. Now this wasn’t metaphorical rebuilding, but actual rebuilding the schools to be more energy efficient, etc. On the heels of a discussion on Ms. Mimi’s blog about the ludicrous “The heat is either on or off” policy of most urban schools, I was delighted.

Presently, my school has opted for the “The heat is off” policy, which in December is not the best choice, even in California. Northern California is not the California of the sunny post card, by the way. Then again, some of my colleagues in snowy areas are in short sleeve shirts, sweltering in December, so I’m not sure which is worse. I will tell you that I feel like I’m lying to kids when I say that my office is a space where they can come to relax when it feels not unlike the arctic tundra. “Yes, it a degree back here, but doesn’t it make you feel warm inside to talk to me? No? Okay.”

Now, I am a problem-solver. I got a space heater the other day and was so excited that I was going to be able to feel my fingers as I typed, but alas, I was foiled again by 1940s building plans, because there is no electrical outlet in my office. The nearest outlet is at least an extension cord or two away. The good news is, no one will be able to sneak up on me in my office, what with my new trip-wire in place.

Fourty-four days and counting…c’mon Obama, don’t let us down.

*Oh how we miss Tim Russert. In case anyone was wondering, we approve of David Gregory as a replacement. I realize no one was wondering. I just wanted to put it out there.

**Hope. So hot right now.

OJ is Going to Jail

You are thinking: “How is OJ Simpson’s latest pending incarceration possibly related to educational psychology?”

WELL. This is a full-service blog, people!

As I picked up my morning paper today, I saw that OJ was going to jail for 9 years and I smiled, not because I particularly enjoy when ex-athletes get incarcerated, but because I have a fond memory of an autistic child I worked with who could not stop talking about OJ Simpson. It was one of his “things.” As many readers know, one of the characteristics that can be present in children with Autism is both restricted interests* and echolalia (repetition of words or phrases). This particular boy was into OJ. Now this was 2 full years after OJ’s acquittal, and he always repeated, in the same voice tone, “OJ’s going to jaaaaaaaaaaaaail!” As in:

Me: Hi, how are you today?
Him: OJ’s going to jaaaaaaaaaaaaail!
Me: Honey, OJ isn’t going to jail. They let him go.
Him: OJ’s going to jaaaaaaaaaaaaail!
Me: OJ is not going to jail.
Him: I want juice.

*ten seconds elapse*

Him (screaming and running up and down the stairs ): OJ’s going to jaaaaaaaaaaaaail! OJ’s going to jaaaaaaaaaaaaail! OJ’s going to jaaaaaaaaaaaaail!

I can’t help but wonder this morning if that kid feels totally vindicated today.

*Be careful before you self-diagnose your 8-year-old child or nephew as “Autistic” because he is really into trains, Bakugan Battle Toys, biking or PS2. Those are normal restricted interests. We’re talking about RESTRICTED interests that are waaaay beyond the scope and intensity of normal fads and hobbies.

Study Skill O’ The Week: Dingers!

Back in the 20th century, when I was in high school, I had this social studies teacher who would give away all the test answers the day before the test in a game called “Dingers.” We would line up in two groups and when it was your turn, you sat face to face with a classmate, game-show style, and in between you was one of those Dinger things that you ring for service. He would read out the question and whoever got their hand practically punctured by the other person’s hand slapping on top of yours slapping on top of the Dinger got to answer the question and earn points for the team. There was no delicate plucking of the bell, as pictured. Years later, I realized he wasn’t giving away the answers, he was teaching us how to study for the test. Curses! Tricked into learning again! So with full props to my 10th grade social studies teacher, here is the game, modified for the 21st Century.



1) Obtain a Staples “That Was Easy!” button. In today’s litigious world, one wants to avoid the “How did my son puncture his hand again?” conversation. The button is nice and soft, and has the added bonus of saying, “That Was Easy!” every time you push it.*

2) Line people up, Family Feud style, with half the class in a line and half the class in another. The two people in the front of the line sit down at a table, place their thumbs under the table and 4 fingers on the table to have an equal start.

3) Teacher reads out a question and whoever hits the “That Was Easy!” button gets to guess. If the person gets it right, they get 2 points: one point for getting it right, and one point for being correct that it was indeed “Easy.” If the person gets it wrong, the other team automatically gets 1 point because the other team misjudged the difficulty of the question.**

4) At this point, the other team can accept the 1 point and walk away, or choose to “steal” for an additional point by hitting the “Easy” button and getting it correct. If they get it wrong, they walk away with zero points.

5) Please expect a classroom full of students screaming, “It’s easy! It’s easy! Do it! Dude!” when there is a stealing opportunity. So if you are opposed to that, set up a ground rule in the beginning that teams lose points if someone yells out. I think the yelling out is kind of fun for them, but everyone has their own tolerance for noise.

6) Also, if you have a particularly aggressive student who you feel cannot handle the controlled slapping of button, put him/her in charge of keeping points on the whiteboard or reading the questions with you.

7) If your test questions are better in written form (say, like doing a math problem) then you can have two baby whiteboards and dry erase markers at the Dingers station and they can work out the problem on their individual boards, then hit the Easy button.

8) Try it out, and let me know if “That was Easy!”


*So annoying after a while. Kids of all ages love it though. Also, I do not endorse any particular office supply store. But if Staples wants to throw me a kick-back, feel free!

** This is in place so that our more impulsive friends (read: ADHD, those with Executive Functioning deficits) can evaluate the difficulty of task first, which is an important study skill. We’ve all seen the kid who rushes through something, thinking it’s easy, and does it all wrong. This is a good inhibition (“stop and think”) practice for test taking.

My Kingdom for a Printer

I’ve been following the saga of Mrs. Mimi, and her battle for basic needs in her school, such as a parking spot, in My Kingdom for a Parking Space. While hers takes the cake for wackness in education, I have to report that it’s pathetic that I can’t get a working printer in the public school on the cusp of 2009, especially when my job entails writing lengthy reports on whether or not kids have learning disabilities, Autism, ADHD, Emotional Disabilities, etc. etc. Not to toot my own horn, but I think it’s important for parents and schools to have a written copy of such things.

I wont go into boring detail, but on Tuesday, I almost lost it, in manner of the movie Office Space in which the guy freaks out because the printer keeps saying “PC Letter Load” and he ends up smashing the thing with a bat in a field after work. Since I have a nonviolent temperament, I will use an “I message” instead. *

Printer, I feel frustrated when things that should take 5 minutes, like printing a report, takes days because I have a laptop with no Internet or printer connector so I can’t print at school.** I feel sad that I have to drive 10 miles away to use the one printer that we have for the 40 psychologists. I feel angry when the printer wasn’t working, then it was, but then there was no white paper. I need A WORKING PRINTER.

The funny part of this story is that I used Twitter to voice my frustration, writing, “All I want for Christmas is a working printer in my school” and this morning, I received a notice that Riso Printers, Inc. was now following me on Twitter. Stay tuned, Riso.

*For those of you who don't hang around the yoots, educators are big fans of the "I Message" in which you tell someone how you are feeling and what you need. Some of my little ones don't quite get the concept yet, and say, "I hate you." We're working on it.

**Don't say flashdrive. I forgot it that day.