I am a high school teacher  and coach in westchester county NY.  I have found that student athletes rend to perform better while in season then when not.  Many students play high school sports, whether the big name sports like football and baseball, to the lesser name sports like skiing and swimming.  I have found out though that students who play any sport at any level in high school tend to perform better in classroom while in season.

 I have noticed that my soccer players do better during the fall than in the winter or spring.  I have looked at grades of other students who play 2 and 3 sports throughout the high school year and find similar results. 

There could be many factors to this being true.   One could be that students have less time for homework and studying, therefore give it extra attention.  Since a typical student athlete doesn’t get home until after 5pm on a given day during their season, they only have a few hours of time before bed to eat dinner, have some down time, and do HW.  However, when that same student does not play a sport during a particular season, they have more free time because they are getting home around 3pm, which gives them more time to get lazy and then not do their work.  Another reason for improved scores during a sports season would be the incentive to stay eligible.  Every school has requirements that a student athlete must adhere to, to stay elgible for their season.  All the more incentive for a student athlete to do their work and perform well in the classroom.  Lastly, could be parental pressure.  Many parents allow their children top play high school sports provided they keep their grades up.  Many parents have pulled their children off teams due to a drop in grades.

Athletics are very important to a students growth and social life.  We all shjould be pushing students into getting involved in sports or any extracurricular activities at school.  From personal experiences, getting involved may actual improvbe student success.

Are long vacations beneficial to the students and teachers?

Its a very interesting question.  First thought by practically everyone would be of course.  But are they really?  It is true that vacations allow students a chance to recharge their batteries and get away fromt he grind of school and learning.  It allows them to go out and enjoy childhood without having to constantly be in the classroom under intense pressure from everyone to do well.  Teachers could also use the break to recharge their batteries, travel, and spend time with their families.  The vacation time is very healthy to everyone and relieves the stress of teaching and learning.

 However, there are some drawbacks to long vacations.  Other than travel, do teachers and students need a full week off?  By having extended vacations, both students and teachers need a day or two to get back into the routine of school.  Students conveniently forget what they had learned before these vacations as well.  It just seems that lots of time is lost in reviewing old material inorder to continue with the new material. 

In high school, we had 2 months ago a christmas break, three weeks after that midterms and regents week.  And then 3 weeks after that another week off.  And in less than a month another week for Easter.  It seems like there is time off every few weeks.  How can teachers and students expect to eprform at their best if they can’t get into a routine.  Do we need to really recharge our batteries every three weeks???

 Now as an educator myself, I would say of course I do.  I enjoy my long weekends and long vacations.  Anytime i can spend with my family and friends is well deserved and well appreciated.  Would i want less vacation time?  I would consider less vacation time during the year if it meant a longer summer vacation.    I love my vacation time and wouldn’t give it up for the world.  But coming back from vacations is very frustrating and tiring trying to get the students back into the swing of things.

I wrote my paper on Internet filtering and was very intrigued.  before doing my research, I would have said that filtering was vital.  Now, my views have changed a little.  I still feel that schools need to filter the Internet to keep inappropriate material away from our students.  However, the software available today needs to be tweaked.  School districts do not have any control over what the software blocks and what sites it doesn’t.  I feel that there should be changes to these softwares that are available for schools to purchase.  Schools should be allowed to  have final say in which sites are appropriate. 

 If schools had control, then teachers would be allowed to use more interactive websites in class for their lessons, and  Students would have more access to information that the software now blocks because of one inappropriate word.  Students can always find a way around these firewalls and filters if they want to.  Students today are very knowledgeable and resourceful.  

 The filters should be programmed to allow block only inappropriate sites  and not sites that would help student learning.  Many communities in the world use the Internet as their only means of connecting to the outside world.  If they are going to have these filters and restrictions, then they ability to converse with other communities is reduced.

I missed my post last week so here is a double post 

Midterms are finally over and I would have to say I was very surprised with many of the results.  Of course some of those surprises were good and some were bad.  Many students performed right where I thought they would while others exceeded my expectations.  I was very surprised and happy to see that about 20 percent of my students exceeded my expectations for them and in fact they exceeded their own expectations.  On the other hand about 20 percent of my students performed below my expectations for whatever the reason.  Some weren’t feeling well, some choked under the pressure, and some didn’t study at all.  I was very disappointed, but there is still light at the end of the tunnel. 

Many people in my district want to get rid of the midterms now that the Math A has been thrown out and the Math curriculum is going back to a regents exam in June after a one year course, rather than in january after a year and a half.  I think this would be a bad decision.  I feel this would be a huge detriment to all of the students, but especially the freshmen.  Freshmen come into high school never really taking a cumulative exam.  I feel that midterms allow them to have a “trial run” at taking a cumulative exam before actually taking the regents.  Yes, the midterm exams count toward their final average, but it counts as a small percentage.  I feel that they can only gain from taking midterms.  Even if they performed poorly, they know what to expect in June when they take the regents.  And the regents exam is what matters.  Colleges do not see midterm grades, only final averages and maybe regents exams.

My students take midterms tomorrow and i am a little nervous about their success.  I have done all i could to prepare them but I am a little frs\ustrated with their lack of desire.  I have offered review sessions the past two days after their other midterm exams and only had ONE student show up total!!!!  I hate hen my students fail, but I don’t see how i wont have a group of failures tomorrow.  People tell me to don’t worry about it, it happens, but it still ticks me off and frustrates me. 

Midterms are driving me crazy.  No time for anything!!!!  110 students both freshmen and seniors taqking midterms next week.  To top it all off we had a chemical spill and lost practically a whole day yesterday due to precautionary reasons.  Making up a couple of miderms from scratch is not easy.  A fair test that covers 5 months of work.  UGH…. a total nuisance.

Rangers have taken a 2-0 lead behind Ryan Hollweg’s first two goals of the year. 

The rangers vs the flyers!!!!   rangers will win tonight 3-1 and king Henrik will return to his dominating ways.  Jagr, Gomez, and Shannahan will each score a goal and Rosival and Stall will both contribute 2 assists.

 GO RANGERS!!!!!!

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