A new teacher blog link, and some older ones

I just added Polski to my blogroll. His lighthearted take on the craziness that is middle students and the extracraziness that is middle school administration, well, it makes a good read.

This is a good time to catch up on a few more teacher blog links that I added but never mentioned.

Chaz is a NYC teacher (HS in Queens, science, I think). And he spells trouble for our union. He is disatisfied, and articulate. Not all of his issues are my issues, but all of his issues are important and worth reading seriously. Dismiss him at your own risk.

3σ → Left is a Minnesota high school math teacher. That squiggle is a greek ‘s’ (sigma), and it stands for standard deviations. So 3σ → Left could mean 3 large units away from the center (maybe a political label?) or 3 units to the left (on an intelligence curve, that would be, um, oops), or 3 units away from the mainstream in general. Anyhow, lots of slice of life, teacher and school policy issues, frustrating stories of seniors not doing work, administration backing parents who may not always be doing the best things possible, education-wise, etc. Real teacher, real issues, hard to answer questions.

Mathematical Musings is Jeanne Simpson, a middle school math teacher in Alabama. Jeanne uses lots ‘o technology, including blogs with her class, and blogs about it, of course.

Click below for more

Here are her rules for having a blog:

To use the CRMS school blogs, you must agree to the following statements.

1. I will not use any curse words or inappropriate language.
2. I will not use fighting words or provoke anyone.
3. I will avoid the use of chat language.
4. I will try to spell everything correctly.
5. I will only give constructive criticism.
6. I will only use my first name.
7. I will not post pictures of myself.
8. I will not give out any personal information about myself or anyone else.
9. I am responsible for anything posted in my name.
10. I will not plagiarize.
11. I will use common sense.

I recognize that breaking any of these rules could lead to any of the following consequences depending on severity and repetition:

1. warning
2. deletion of some or all of the post
3. temporary loss of blogging privileges
4. permanent loss of blogging privileges

I further recognize that the blog is considered a virtual extension of our classroom, and therefore all CRMS, Decatur City Schools, AL Department of Education, and US federal Rules and Regulations apply. I am aware that violation of any of these rules may be referred to the School Administration.
(Print Name) __________________________________________

(Student Signature) ______________________________________

(Parent Signature) _______________________________________

(date)_______________

Neat, huh? I especially like 3, 4, and 11.