I've had it this week.

I have never thought about taking a day off school. I have never bad mouthed my students and meant it. I have never thought a lesson I thought was a complete bomb. I have never felt like I can't get my kids to learn.

Until this week.

I feel like my kids have given up on me. The hardest thing a teacher can do is be in a situation where they feel the kids do not want to learn. I just want to flip their desk over and say, "FINE! If you don't want to prove that you can learn this, then fail."
The very fact that I am thinking this is questioning my entire integrity as a successful teacher. My first year of school I was a rock. I would take on any challenging kid. Now it seems like I have so many kids that just don't want to learn.

Oh and don't get me started on parents!

Why do parents wait until the week before they get the grade before they start caring about their kids' grade? I've been e-mail you all year! Why do none of my kids care about their grade until the week before they are about to get it?

At least once a day I tell one of my classes that I truly care and want them to do well and they need to be responsible and care about learning the material so they can get a good education and good grades.
Well they don't. Until the day they get the grade.

When I learned how to drive a car, I didn't learn that I needed to start using the brakes after I made the mistake of slamming into the car in front of me. I understood what needed to be done to learn how to drive.

The same applies with these kids.

I hate feeling so helpless.

Make them want to learn.

Education is not received. It is achieved.

Why do we buy the brands we love? Why do we think Velveeta Shells and Cheese is so much better than its generic counterparts? Is there something about the way that box looks that makes me want to buy it over the crappy brand?

Advertising. I have no doubt in my mind that the reason people buy what they do is because of good advertising. What if you had to advertise your classroom?

What if your class were a movie? Would anyone want to watch it?

Sometimes I find myself staring in the mirror in the morning at my Adonis-like body and wonder: Are you a good teacher? Do kids want to be in your class? Do you want to be in your class?

How can I sell myself?

I've decided to stop bombarding this blog with hypothetics and get to the point. Let's advertise. I am going to sell my classroom ... in the format of what the back of a movie case would look like. The movie about my classroom.

Learn and Earn or Crash and Burn

Brandon St. Clair "captivates, motivates and agglomerates" (Time Magazine) in this fast curriculum based educational thrill ride filled with knowledge and excitement around every lesson!
Mr. St. Clair [Brandon St. Clair] plays a sixth grade math teacher with an insatiable hunger to inspire students to learn.
If he can get the kids to believe that what he teaches is what they want to learn, then they are going to want to learn it. If he just joins the ranks of mediocrity like so many teachers before him, he may not be as effective.
This year, Mr. St. Clair has some changes to make. With the help of a rascally troupe [Krause, McCarthy and Klimek] this year in Math6 is sure to be a hit!

Washington v. Kardashian: Wood Teeth v. Veneers

First off, did you ever have a grandma or someone start to lose it a little? Like so much that they made a lasagna where the top two layers of it is the dessert cake she made? And all you can really do is force it down and tell her that it's good and that she is the best cook ever.

That's how I felt about getting through the Revolutionary Wealth. There were so many good lines to get out of it, but so many, tons, much other ... WORDS! It was really hard for me, as a bad reader, to truly... get it.
So, the following is a quote and some of my chain letter that brings up some really insightful ideas and opinions.


"As speeds continue to accelerate, with currency and securities markets already operating at blinding, blistering, blitzing rates, the market life of products (and products related to them) will continue to shorten." p 267

When I read this, I was like "heck yeah I agree with this!" My "old" iphone is a few years old and is already a paperweight. How does education compare to the rapid acceleration? Well think about how long it takes to implement something new in the cycle of education. How long it takes for a student to start and end in the public school system.

When something in education is modified, it takes quite some time to see results.
At the "blistering, blitzing" pace information is growing, education seems to rapidly be losing its battle to keep up.
Think about history. Up until World War two-ish anything that got published nationally was HUGE news and would definitely make its way "into the books".
Now everything is national. What will history say about this era. Will the students have to memorize the dates Paris Hilton pops a tire on her bright pink Bentley? Or a matching section devoted to celebrities and their stints in jail.

We need to know what is important. A definitive line between what is going on in the world, and what the world needs to know to become better. Lately I have been feeling overwhelmed with everything this world has to offer.

I really feel, however, that my job is great because nothing will ever replace the value that a human teacher has on a classroom. Someone to walk around the room and tell kids about how much they care and want to see them succeed. If they can take from my class the knowledge that someone wants to see them do their best, and is willing to devote a little time to making them better people, then I've done a great job. The rest is just getting them to know the crap on the state tests.

Brandon