Book Review of Ancient Rome: The Rise and Fall of an Empire

Ancient Rome: The Rise and Fall of An Empire

By Simon Baker

            Since one of the most fascinating sections in world history is the story of the rise and fall of the Roman Empire, this book certainly highlights the glory and the debacle that was the Roman Empire. This book focuses on six turning points in the life of the Roman Empire and the power and brutality that was their trademark. The author examines the lives and motives of the leaders and founders of the empire and the foundation of one of the most formidable fighting units in the history of the world.

            I would highly recommend this book to any teacher or student of world history. The details in the book are outstanding and the book is highly readable. I used this book this year in my world history class. Several of the students read and enjoyed the book’s details and stories. They enjoyed class discussions  on many of the points emphasized in the book and used the book as a reference in their open response questions.

Back from break

  It was strange over the holiday I missed my kids.  I enjoyed the break but I would be lying if I told you I did not miss my classes. I teach some great kids which makes my days fly.  I can't believe we are almost half way done with the year there is so much I want to get done that I have an unreasonable fear that I am running out of time.

Book Review of The Last of the Fathers:James Madison & the Republican Legacy

The Last of the Fathers: James Madison & the Republican Legacy

By Drew McCoy

           

                                                            

This book examines in detail the role James Madison played in the evolution of the American colonies into a united group of states. Unlike other discussions of Madison’s role in government, this one focuses on life after his retirement. His constant efforts to influence and direct the role of the Republicans and his desire to sway others to follow his plans, even after his death, are the mainstay of the book.

I would use this book in my classroom as a detailed reference on the Constitution. Many of my civics’ students are very interested in the evolution of the government from the Articles of Confederation to present day government and this book would help them understand the intent of the Republicans and their vision of the future government. I would recommend this book for anyone who teaches civics or American history.  

What I haven't learned in nine weeks

I could summarize what I have learned in nine weeks or recap the first term but that seems much too easy so I won't.  Instead I thought I would tell you what I haven't learned.  I am still not sure what makes seventh graders act so strange, or smell like pickles.  I still am not sure why people who hate kids decided to spend a large part of their lives surrounded by them.  I can't really decipher  most of what tenth grade boys are saying except I am pretty sure it has something to do with hunting and girls, or some combination of the two.  I don't really understand why coaches complain about working so hard when the rest of us TEACH for a living.  I don't really know what the teacher's lounge is for, no body ever lounges there, they just gripe. I can't discover how to make my ninth graders study, or remain awake when I talk. I thought it would be easy keeping a professional distance. I am old, cynical, and generally grumpy, but it's not.  I like my kids. I look forward to seeing them every day. I enjoy having them in class, strange isn't it.  I haven't figured out bell work.  The bell rings and no body works and I spend more time taking  it up then if I just tell them to sit down and be quiet.  I don't  know why kids like me. I work them to death, I give really hard tests and I refuse to lower my standards even when I would like too.  I don't really know if I am doing a good job or not.  Every body who has watched me teach says I am great but how would they know, they are only there for a short time and how can I trust them, they aren't teachers.  I want my kids to learn, to grow, to become what they can be.  That is  a hard goal to judge. Sure I can make them be quiet or take notes but whether they are learning or not, I just don't know.  I worry about it a lot. I study every assignment for the elusive evidence that they are advancing. When I don't see it, I become despondent.  Not for me but for them, the world they are on the cusp of entering is a hard one and it will crush them and their youth  with out a backwards glance. In the final analysis,  I think teachers are more like salesmen than you might think. We are selling education to a very skeptical clientele.  To me education is a kind of protection plan for the world and the damage it inflicts. It's not perfect or always adequate but in the balance it's much better to have it than to not. Some of them aren't going to get the protection. I know it and so do you. I wish I knew how to change that, but I don't.

This is not why I got in to teaching.

When I think about why I wanted to become a teacher the desire to yell at kids and put them in ISS is never on the list.  I got in to this line of work out of a desire to use history as a way to help young people learn to reason and help them use that reason to excel at whatever came after High school.  I don't require a quiet class room to work in, in fact if it is too quite I get a little worried, and I don't stress the fine points of modern education that much.  Jokes are OK even the ones aimed at me and I am not the gum or skirt police.  I have too much to do to try and catch every student with a stick of gum and I will never ever under stand a dress code the condemns tank tops but gives the OK to cheerleader outfits.  I try and set a good feeling tone in my classes where every one knows we are there to work but we can have fun while we do it.  It is a balancing act one which I frequently fall on my butt trying to pull off. The truth is as much as I might want a class room where every one is engaged and interested and acting like adults, I teach kids.  Kids don't always want to work and sometimes I don't do a good enough job teaching to make it interesting for them.  Kids just don't think like adults  and if you're a adult teacher who jokes and plays with them it's not really their fault if they miss you're cue it is time to go to work.  I think most discipline problems are  in reality not the students fault.  Take my eighth period class it is 27 seventh graders 8 of which have a  IEP or have a 504 there are 5 more who should be but for what ever reason don't.  They come to me straight from athletics and are ready to go home.  Many of them really need a lot of help which means we go slow which means the kids who get it are bored to tears, is it their fault they start to talk?  If I go faster there are about 5 kids who just can't keep up they get bored because they have no idea what the rest of the class is talking about many of them have behavioral issues all ready. Is it there fault when they lose their minds, probably not.  The real fault lies with their parents who neglect to teach them how to behave at home, with a system that puts a premium on cost not the individual needs of each student and their teacher who can't find a way to keep their attention and hold their interest.  I can't tell them that though there is no time and it's definitely not administration approved.  So I tell them to sit down, be quiet, quit disturbing class.  I give them lines, send them out into the hall and tell them how bad they are acting.  Which is all a kind of lie because in my heart I don't blame them I blame myself, their parents and the school.  On the days it is really bad and I lie a lot I all ways have the same thought; this is not why I got into teaching.

The most over used words in education

During the two weeks in the Fall every year when as a nation we remember we care about education you can't  read a news paper or magazine or watch TV with out encountering the words "it's all about the kids".  The state wide news paper uses the phrase so much I all most checked with a copy right lawyer before I reprinted it here.  I often wonder about it's constant use in that it is usually in conjunction with a demand for teachers to do more take less and in general sacrifice because in education "it's all about the kids".  I feel bad for doctors and nurses because while they make up over half of the highest paying jobs in America nobody thinks what they do is important enough to warrant a constant reminder that it is all about the patients.

Teaching is a funny kind of job

Teaching is a funny job, and I don't mean funny as much as I mean different. People put them selves thorough all kind of hoops to get an interview , every thing from the Praxis test to education classes that some times seem to have been designed to have as little real world application as possible and to last forever.  Then when you get to an interview you set through questions that often  range from pointless to absurd.  They ask people who have never spent one day in a classroom about  our educational philosophy, as if we could possibly have any idea.  They ask questions about situations so ridiculous that you can't image they will happen to YOU, but they will.  People who are all ready teachers aren't exactly encouraging, from the ones who don't teach any more because they hated it to the ones who hate it but still do, out of some perverse desire to make as many people as unhappy as possible.  When I see some of my colleagues walk down the hall I swear if I squint just right I can see the black cloud of doom that follows them from place to place, touching every person in their wake students and faculty alike.  I can even read their minds; twenty thousands dollars in debt for this, god two more days till Friday,  these kids are so bad now no respect like when I was younger I blame the parents, I wonder what movie we should watch to day, I hate kids.  The problem is the kids can read it to.  The kids are the really strange component of teaching they don't pay attention, they don't study, they don't turn in home work, they don't, they don't, they don't.  Then for reasons I can only surmise have to do with witch craft or the end of days  they DO.  They study, they read, they listen, they understand, they write better, they think better  they leave you notes telling you that they will study harder and get better grades they DO, And at the end of the day you think twenty thousand isn't that much, the Praxis wasn't that bad, the education classes aren't THAT long and even old I hate every thing and every body isn't that bad.  All because a class of fifteen year old children learned how to write a better open response, funny.