The Earl Grey Tempest: In Defense of the Pep-Rally

I accidentally found myself in the midst of a teapot, and oh, how the mighty tempest blew.

See, last Friday was a big pep-rally and students involved missed 3rd period.  It affected my class by removing 4 students in dance and cheer.  School-wide, about 100 students missed 3rd period.  After the rally, I found myself in a knot of teachers who were indignant that all of these students missed an entire period of academic instruction all for a 20 minute pep-rally.

I suppose that's true.  Each student missed 54 minutes of instruction time.  But, if we're going to help students become college- and career-ready, then we must instill the value of communication and help them realize that decisions have consequences that they might not like.

I don't know any college or career that demands that you be at work every day the doors are open.  There are procedures for taking a day off regardless of the reason.  The work must get done, but with good communication, there's no reason why anyone can't take a day off.  Even if you're sick or have a family emergency, there are ways of communicating and getting a shift covered.  This is real life.  This is how the real world works.

Every teacher has a method for dealing with students who miss class.  Students know they need to make up work.  Students, with their parents, need to be the ones making decisions about how they're involved in co-curricular activities.  Being involved in these things requires a sacrifice; sometimes that means coming into class during lunch or after school to make sure they get what they missed.  Demanding that students never miss classroom instruction for any non-academic reason is quite a disservice.

I'll leave this note here to remind future Mr. Davis that no, biology class is not the most important class to most of your students and a missed class will not condemn a person to destitution.  Biology class is a small piece of a larger mosaic of student education.  Education happens in the lab, on the field, on a dance floor, in anti-bullying clubs, in books, in the choir room, and just about anything else that students rub shoulders with people who care.

I did remind my fellow teachers that a handful of students missing 3rd period won't be any more work, it's no different than sports teams leaving early for a game, and despite academic classes' legitimate importance in the life of a student, they're not the only thing.

I got silence.  Then I was asked to leave the teapot.

Student Engagement: On Science and Romance

Last semester, the students studied genetics.  This semester the students' studies will be slightly distracted by the joys of Valentine's Day and Prom.

While the students were working on a practice assignment one of the guys stopped me and said, "Hey Mr. Davis.  I have a question for you and it's not about the assignment."

He began asking me questions about how we get blue roses.  I let him know that blue roses are artificially colored white roses and that blue coloration in nature is quite rare.

After talking about it for a couple of minutes, I asked, "What's the interest in blue roses?"

Turns out there's a nice girl he'd like to impress.  Her favorite color is blue, and he wanted to get her a bunch of blue roses.  Specifically, he wanted some with blue and white stripes.  I mentioned the word "variegated" and he said, "Hey, isn't that co-dominance?"  I replied in the affirmative, and what he said next made me happy and a little sad:  "Hey!  Biology in real life!"

I was glad that he made the connection to his experiences, but we may have missed an opportunity to help him make that connection during the unit of study.  This type of thing will be a good item to bookmark in my brain; much may be learned through romantic endeavors.  

After a quick banter about genetics, I recommended that he walk into a florist's shop and see if they could help get him some blue roses.  I am not only a biology teacher, but a floral adviser, too.

Sports! Are You Eligible?

At our staff meeting this morning, I discovered that the calculations for GPA that goes on transcripts for college is calculated differently than the way GPA is calculated for eligibility for sports and other co-curricular activities.

Calculating GPA for sports does -not- take into account weighting Honors and AP classes.  For Transcript GPA, normal classes use a 4-point scale, and Honors/AP classes use a 5-point scale.  Under the CIF Blue Book (.pdf), grades from classes cannot be weighted.  AP classes are on the same 4-point scale as a normal class.

Here's the scenario (name changed to protect the ineligible):
John Smith - 11th Grade - Fall Semester

Class	Grade	Transcript Points	Eligibility Points
Marching Band	A	4	4
AP Lang & Comp	D-	2	1
Honors Human Anatomy	C-	3	2
Pre-Calculus	D-	1	1
Spanish IIA	C	2	2
US History	D-	1	1
GPA		2.16	1.83

CIF demands that players have a 2.0.  Looks like our John Smith will be benched.

Cheer Bows: A Short Discourse On Correlation and Causation

Before the tardy bell rang, I had a short conversation with a member of our school's dance team. I learned that a successful dance troupe has the following features:

1. Good moves - I believe the precise adjective used in this conversation was "sweet."
2. Large hair bows, consisting of either glitter or sequins.  The more, the better.
3. Pristine "poofs" - A term for a particularly difficult manner of doing one's hair that involves a great deal of hairspray.

The hair bows caught my attention.  I figured the "sweet" moves was an obvious skill for a dance team, and I don't have enough style to speak intelligently about the "poof."  Bows are a major part of women's sports and there is even a huge subculture of crafters who have made a business out of hair bows.  But do big bows necessarily make one a better dancer?

The dance team member I was talking to had two hair bows, one fastened to her head and another attached to her cheer bag.  I am no expert at hair accessories, but they seemed larger than is practical; both bows observed were about  6-7 inches tall and about 5 inches across.  The ribbon itself was about 3 inches wide and each iridescent sequin was placed with impressive geometric precision.

I asked, "Why are the bows so big?"

She answered, "Well, spirit, of course.  And all the best teams have them."

I ventured a bit further.  "Does the size actually cause you dance better, or are they just a staple of the best teams?"

She replied, "I don't know.  Both, maybe.  They're just cute!"

I laughed and asked,  "Both?  Now, that's something!  Perhaps big bow size means increased "cuteness," and cuteness increases spirit, which increases one's dancing skill, which increases a team's chances at success."

"Um...  Yes?"  

My keen sense of observation led me to believe the conversation needed to end, but I am convinced that there may actually be a causal relationship between bow size and team success.