Delta

I hope someone can learn something from this song. As always click on the song title to link to the recording. 

                                        Delta

River’s flowing all the way to the ocean to deposit silt and sand

A triangular shape called a delta it’s swampy and it’s called marshland

Well there’s the Tigris and Euphrates the Mississippi Valley

The Huang He or the Yellow River there in China

The Rubicon and Tiber the Rhine flows to the North Sea

Through the Netherlands it’s a delta land

Water rolling along the way many things fall in

From trees to leaks from springs to creeks the river is hauling

There’s the Indus and the Ganges the Hudson River Valley

The Nile is the longest the Amazon’s no baby

The Danube in the EU Zambezi in the jungle

Mighty Murray down under no worries

Repeat first verse

Well there’s the Tigris and Euphrates the Mississippi Valley

The Nile is the longest the Amazon’s no baby

The Huang He or the Yellow River there in China

Mississippi is very muddy

Living Things

Here is the opening track for the "album" Island of Life. This song is sung by Stevie "StingRay" Koritta. The drums are performed by Joey "Kangaroo" Wachtel. Yours truly Danny "Dingo" Davinroy plays guitar, bass, and harmonica. The song is housed at Soundcloud.com so please click on the song title to listen. 

              Living Things

Island of life spinning round and round
Carrying the creatures that you and I have found
All of this life different yet alike
We are living  we are living things 

Animals and plants and things too small to see
Living almost everywhere living so simply
From the Antarctic ice to the frozen Bering Sea
There are living There are living things

Nonliving things like the sun, air, and minerals
Are used by living things
We can use them but we must be careful
Not to harm the Earth        
It is our friend don’t let it hurt
I want clean rivers I want to swim in lakes
I want to hike the backwoods I want to participate

Island of life spinning round and round
Caring for the creatures that you and I have found
All of this life different yet alike
We are living we are living things

Below is the lesson to be learned from this song.

Try and think of the Earth as a great big island floating in an endless sea. The Universe is so big that the Earth is like a grain of sand in the Sahara Desert. However, if you tried to walk a short distance of 30 miles it would take you all day. The Earth has a circumference of about 25,000 miles. So, although the Earth is small compared to the Universe it is huge to us little humans.

On our huge planet millions and millions of organisms live together each one affecting how the other lives. You may think that your life has nothing to do with a bird living in South America. But what humans do to survive affects how other creatures survive. So when we have to dig in the Earth or plant on the Earth we are using some other creature's space. This is why we should use care and caution when doing things like mining and planting crops. 

Things like driving the car, running the air conditioner, and throwing out the garbage affect how other organisms live here on the planet. How would you like it if I stopped by your house and told you that I needed your room to throw my garbage in? This is exactly what we humans do to millions of organisms everyday.

You do not need a tree to play a video game but you do need that tree to help you breathe. Trees provide us with oxygen. If you do not have oxygen you will not be playing video games.

Thus, all living things are interconnected. 

Remember this as you live your life, everything we do affects how other living things live or die. This is why we must care for our planet and all the organisms living in it. We have a responsibility to think about how we treat the Earth and the organisms living in it.

THINK AND ACT RESPONSIBLY!

Burps Are Chemicals

Stay tuned for a whole lot more posts of my educational songs. I would really consider them demos instead of commercial ready tunes. However, they are good enough to use in the classroom as starting points for teachers to get the kids thinking about the various concepts and facts.

When I came across a musician, songwriter, and educator named Dr. Lodge I realized I should be distributing these songs free so that teachers and students can use them. My first set of children's recordings was Island of Life and a few of these have already been loaded on this blog. Island of Life was recorded on a Boss BR-8 track digital recorder. The current batch of earth science themed songs plus the one I have loaded here were recorded using Garageband.

The song below is a song I wrote when I saw a presentation by an educator named Dr. Dana. She had this cool little book with drawings that explained some interesting chemistry concepts. I latched on to the lesson on burps and how they are chemicals too. So with out further ado here is Burps Are Chemicals.

p.s. please click on the name of the song to listen.

Burps Are Chemicals

Well I got some indigestion and it's hurting my belly
My stomach feels like a balloon
The balloon is inflating and it feels like it will pop
Then there came a mighty boom
My teacher didn't like it but I said Ms. Ovaltine
Burps are chemicals too

Burps are chemicals
Burps are chemicals
Burps are chemicals too

You see Dr. Dana told me when we eat we swallow air
There's gases in the food and floating everywhere
So excuse me for the burp and I'm sorry if its rude
I'll slow down when I eat but the burps may intrude

And burps are chemicals
Burps are chemicals
Burps are chemicals too

Chlorophyll

Chlorophyll

I want to share this song from Island of Life. I should note that this is posted on a day when there is absolutely no sign of any chlorophyll. This song was written and played by Stephen Koritta. Steve put together the video. Steve is a talented musician, performer, and songwriter.

Here is a link to Steve's YouTube channel.

Chlorophyll


I live on a cul-de-sac
I've got a cactus on the windowsill
Neighbor lady is crazy with chlorophyll

I take a bumpy ride to the countryside
For the weekend just for a thrill
Take in the greenery of the scenery
And every leaf I see has chlorophyll

As the rain fell and the storm passed
As we carried on about our business
Every plant cell in the wet grass
Was in the process of photosynthesis

Every dandelion and every white pine
The ancient redwoods upon the hill
They get their energy from the sunshine
And a substance called chlorophyll

Bullfrog

Bullfrog

Bullfrog bullfrog bullfrog bullfrog
Hiding down in the weeds
Croaking by the marshy reeds
Searching for his love
Bullfrog bullfrog bullfrog bullfrog
Hunkered down in the mud
He starts his call when the trees bud
Bluegills swim below
Bullfrog
Rana catesbiena Rana catesbiena
He starts his life as an egg
Hatches in about 5 days
Now he is a tadpole
Bullfrog bullfrog bullfrog bullfrog
He catches bugs with his tongue
Calling out jug-o-rum
Jumping all around
Bullfrog
Rana catesbiena Rana catesbiena

Bullfrog Lesson

The scientific name for the bullfrog is Rana Catesbieana. There is no simple translation for the word Rana but it comes from a Roman word that means "true frogs." The word Cat – is – bee –yah –na comes from the name of a scientist named Mark Catesby. Do you remember how Carl Linne changed his name to Carolus Linneaus? Well the scientists did the same thing to Mr. Catesby’s name.Now on to the important business of describing the bullfrogs. Bullfrogs are the largest frogs in North America. Female bullfrogs lay thousands and thousands of eggs which are then fertilized by the male. Soon these eggs grow into tadpoles which look like fish. Bullfrogs live as tadpoles for up to 3 years! During this time the tadpole grows legs and one day crawls onto the land to begin life as a genuine bullfrogs.

A male bullfrogs picks his territory and defends it from other males. The male bullfrog will fight another bullfrog if he invades his territory. The bullfrog grabs his opponent with his front legs. When the bullfrog has his opponent secure he flips him over with his powerful hind legs. Luckily, male bullfrogs do not always have to fight other males because each frog can hear the mighty roar of the bullfrog mating call. This loud "jug-o-rum" sound lets other bullfrogs know the territory of an individual frog. The only frog allowed in the territory is the female for whom the male bullfrog serenades with his throaty song.

Humans not only enjoy the sound of the bullfrog but also their mighty legs which can be deep fried in batter and eaten like a chicken leg. This tasty treat even tastes like chicken!!

Unfortunately, the bullfrog has been introduced into the Western United States where it has pushed out some of the natural living things in those areas. The cowboys may start lassoing bullfrogs instead of longhorns.

Back Again

I just realized that it has actually been a year since I stated that I was going to balance my digital reality with my non digital reality. I guess I fell off the wagon. I am once again vowing to develop a routine that will allow me to enjoy both realities. Thus, I have decided to add my hobbies into my professional persona as an alternative school teacher. After all these are the pursuits that make me who I am.
My favorite hobby by far is songwriting. In the last 10 years I have dabbled with writing children's educational songs. One of  the divisions that I thought existed between the children's educational music that I was creating and my job as a teacher was the fact that I worked with high school age students who work individually on a computer based curriculum. However, as I started to create a music appreciation class for my school I realized that the art of writing songs can be introduced to the class that I was creating.
It turns out I found some great ideas about music appreciation class on a blog. The writer of this blog was attending the University of Illinois pursuing a master's of music degree. The drummer of my second hobby, playing in a rock band, is also attending U of I pursuing a doctorate in music. It turns out they know each other.
The digital world merged with my non digital world. So there it is.
I am hoping to use the digital medium to create music and write without worrying about perfection and or making some sort of profit. I learned that as a teacher I should be sharing my ideas so that we can all learn together which inevitably will make us better people. I hope it is enjoyed by someone.

Scientific Method

Scientific Method
This is one of my science songs from the CD Island of Life. It is available on iTunes and many other download sites. It is also available on CD Baby. Below are the lyrics and a brief lesson to accompany the song.

The scientific method is hard they sigh
But all it is, is asking why
Look at the world and what do you see?
Millions of questions floating so free

What do you see?
What is a fact?
The scientific method will tell you that

Ask a question then make a guess
Set out to prove it was there success?
Making discoveries finding things out
Asking what this world is all about

Listen real well 
What do you hear?
The scientific method will make things clear

What will you find?
It may be unknown
The scientific method will you know

Scientists are curious so they make a plan
They set objectives to understand
Scientists are logical to keep things straight
They're open minded people who investigate

Science is real
It's all around
Observing and thinking will make you proud

What will you find?
It may be unknown
The scientific method will let you know

Scientific Method Lesson

Scientists are very curious people. They want to know how things work. By understanding how things work they can solve many problems. Just think of a car mechanic. Car mechanics understand the engine of a car. By understanding how the engine works they can fix your car when it does not run right. Mechanics are the scientists of car engines. Doctors are the scientists of the human body. Can you think of any other kinds of scientists? Characteristics of a Scientist:  Scientists are curious Scientists have objectives Scientists investigate   Scientists think logically     Scientists are open-minded  The Scientific Method:    Identify the problem to be solved   Gather evidence Make a hypothesis Test the hypothesis Share your results Here is an example of how the scientific method works:  ·        You wake up one morning and you have a sore throat. You do not feel sick so you do not know what is causing your throat to hurt. Identify the problem – Your throat hurts and you do not know why.  ·        That afternoon you go to the doctor. You tell her all of the food and drink that you have put down your throat. You tell her what time you went to bed. You try and think of anyone with whom you have had close contact. The doctor looks down your throat and takes your temperature. You have just Gathered evidence.  ·        The doctor makes a hypothesis that you have strep throat.  ·        The doctor takes a throat culture from your throat to test her hypothesis in an experiment.  ·        In her experiment she gently rubs  a Petri dish with your throat culture. She marks this dish “Experimental”. This experimental dish is also known as the variable. She has another Petri dish with a sample of the organism known to cause strep throat. This sample is called the control.  ·        The doctor says that she will call you in 24 hours with the results. When she calls you she reports that you do not have strep throat. Another kind of bacterium has caused your throat to be sore. Thus, she has rejected her original hypothesis. Now she takes all the information that she gathered from you and records it into her note book. She has noticed other patients with similar sore throats and wants to investigate how people are contracting this bacterium. She will do more research, make a new hypothesis, and conduct more experiments.

Suit Sheds Light on School Makeup Courses Pt 2

"Makeup courses." It is in the the title folks. "Alternative" schools like ACE and others like the one where I work allow students a chance to make up the work that they would have missed if they were suspended. These schools are also sometimes known as credit recovery schools for students who have failed to earn the amount of credits to keep them on par for graduation.


My experience is that some students appreciate these schools and take advantage of what they offer and others play around and complain that "it is too much work." Either way it allows a student to maintain involvement in school and as I mentioned in the last post. However, a statement in the article was that P.E. merely consisted of filling out worksheets. We do the same thing in my school. It involves the honesty of the student and the parent or guardian. The student writes down what they did to engage in exercise. Obviously, the student and parent/guardian can fake this information. However, this is one of the problems within education; the grade, diploma, and degree are taken as synonymous with education. I try to tell tell students all of the time that intelligence is gained through knowledge and not grades.

Another statement from the article was "limited direct access to knowledgeable teachers." I know my subject which is social studies, but chemistry and algebra II are subjects that I am not capable of teaching. I believe that alternative schools should have teachers who are knowledgeable in their fields. I can understand that sometimes these schools expect their teachers to help with all subjects. This would not stand in a regular school setting nor should it at an alternative school.

The article goes on to state that students take tests over and over again without the questions changing. This can be controlled by the teacher I know I do in my classroom. Moreover, the lawsuit claimed that the program had deficits but in my experience it is usually the student who has the deficit. That is one of the main reasons that students can have some success in these programs. The students that I have encountered lack many of the skills one would assume that they should know at their particular grade level. If these classes were more difficult and asked for more in depth analyses these students would never get out of high school.

This leads us into the hot topic of the state of education. Everybody seems to have an opinion about what's wrong with education. I will weigh in on this topic in my next post.

Suit Sheds Light on School Makeup Courses Pt 1

This post is in reply to the St. Louis Post Dispatch's front page story a couple of weeks back about alternative schools particularly in the St. Louis Public Schools. First, the headline implies that these schools operate under the cover of darkness. Although I do not understand why ACE did not let a reporter observe their school, these are not secretive places. I work at such a school located in the affluent inner ring of suburbs of St. Louis. One may witness some off task behaviors but this is not unusual although it may seem more obvious because these schools are much smaller making observation of student behavior much easier.

The time limit of three hours is not suspect given the fact that most of the students are putting all of their focus in one or two classes via the computer. If you take away all of the teacher directions, lecture, discussions, lunch, P.E. and other activities at the regular high school then three hours is not too far off from actual focused learning time. Now, it is true that computer based schools do lack the enrichment activities of the regular school but my experience with students at our school is that they prefer it that way. After all, if a student is interested in these enrichment activities then they would not engage in behavior that leads them to be recommended for an alternative school.

The range of behavior that can lead to a placement in a computer based school is lack of motivation, fighting, truancy, possession of drugs, emotional issues, etc... However, lack of motivation is the root of all the various behaviors that lead a student into one of these schools. In my experience students who are suspended for fighting are focusing on their social lives more than they are focusing on their education. Therefore, the motivation to go to school is more for socializing than it is for education.

If the students from Soldan wanted their chemistry lab then that is where they should have been. The article is mute on what classes these two students were in, their grade point average, and their record of conduct. Their claim was that their rights were violated. HOGWASH! What about the rights of students who would like to go to a school to learn, free from disinterested students who would rather fight than learn the non violent history of Dr. Martin Luther King and the civil rights movement.

Behavior has consequences. You reap what you sow. The parents of these individuals need to let them work through the consequences of their behavior and LEARN something from it. Take advantage of the curriculum that is offered at ACE and LEARN. Malcolm X learned with a dictionary in a prison. Computer based courseware comes in many stripes and some of it can be quite good. We need these schools to catch the students who for one reason or another struggle in the regular school.

The future lawyers and their mentors from The Washington University Civil Justice Clinic have likely been successful students who didn't have a need for the stripped down learning of places like ACE. The students from Soldan could have been suspended out of school left to fall behind on credit. I would have liked to see the ST. Louis Public Schools fight them over this case but they have too many issues to let something like this divert their attention and resources.

Back in the Fold

Well, it has been awhile since I have written anything. Not that it matters much since very few people will read this. But in the end, who cares? Thus, the explanation for my absence from the blog, Facebook, and all other Internet pursuits. As George Harrison wrote and sang "It's All Too Much." I was simply overwhelmed by all of the causes, opinions, arguments, rants, etc... that are found in the electronic media.

Should I join group A, get behind cause B, donate to charity C, like music D, back candidate E, live in place F, follow blog G, befriend friend H, and am I green enough? I think I've always been a little apathetic even as a child. I had no problem quitting little league baseball after one year in second grade, opting out for the school flag football team instead of little league tackle football, and quitting wrestling my senior year in high school. On top of this I started to be skeptical of the Catholic Church in first grade. Of course, my father doesn't believe me but it is true. It certainly wasn't the college professors like he thought persuaded me down the path of agnosticism.

In my freshmen year of college I related to the detached individualism of Thoreau. I earned a degree in Sociology to try and understand society. I later earned a degree in history because understanding the past interested me. So, although pursuing knowledge leads to wisdom we can't always put everything into perspective. Enter the modern digital age where information true and false abounds and opinion is taken as truth. Rhetoric is rampant. On top of this people have etched out their digital niches that allow them to filter information so that the information that they peruse fits into their specific worldview. Nothing is what it is because there is a counterpoint or alternate interpretation to almost any event. In many cases this is warranted in others it is pure contrarious thinking.

I have to admit that the time away from the Internet was really liberating and I still question whether it is better to connect or stay disconnected. As a teacher in the digital age I ultimately need to stay connected and embrace the new era. It is fraught with nefarious individuals and groups looking to make a buck by stealing your identity but ultimately it allows ideas to be exchanged at lightning speed.

In the end staying connected both digitally and face to face seems the best way to travel at this point in my life. I am happier if I can remain somewhat detached from causes and movements. If I donate to this cause and not to that cause then so be it. It is what it is. The only thing I will always commit to and advocate for is rational thought. This will no way be the end of my struggles to adjust to the ever changing world but it marks my commitment to push ahead without dropping out and saying "for-ged aboud id." As the fictional George Castanza said, "I'm back baby!"

On Racism.

I was at a friend's family get together last night. Somehow the brutal beating of a student of Belleville West High School came up and a woman in an angry voice stated, "If that would have been white kids beating a black kid then Johnny Scott and Jesse Jackson would have been crying racism." The next comment was, "You didn't hear the president commenting on that case!" Immediately following this comment was, "And he shouldn't have gone to Denmark!" My immediate response was for the woman to "mellow out" and since I was a guest I went no further. 

My friend warned that we were in conservative country. I am becoming increasingly alarmed at the lack of analytical ability of people considered "conservative." The arguments that I hear are essentially regurgitations of the right wing media voices like Limbaugh and Beck. However, they have internalized these viewpoints because quite frankly it is too difficult to think through an issue within one's own mind. 

Let's think through these issues right now. First, concerns the general white outrage at the scene of two black kids beating up a white kid. If a black kid would have been the recipient of the beating perhaps Johnny Scott and Jesse Jackson would be shouting racism? However, if this would have been the case, would white people be outraged? 

If you look back at the history of the United States and the well documented cases of whites beating or many times killing blacks, there was little outrage by whites about these horrible events.  The facts are that the majority of white people sat mute in these cases. Of course, any ethnicity can be racist, but history is still clear on this matter in the United States. WHITE people have committed the sheer majority of violence toward other ethnicities. Certainly all beatings by anyone is reprehensible, yet we are only concerned when the recipients of the beatings look like one's own ethnicity. 

However, now that other ethnicities have gained the civil rights that were granted to white males for centuries, whites are now suddenly feeling like victims of a system that has simply become more equal and less favorable to white dominance. Yes, the comfort of being DOMINANT is no longer quite as obvious to white people. This is why whites feel so outraged if a white is the victim of minority induced violence. It is really the realization that whites do not have racial superiority over other groups. 

If you are horrified by a black beating up a white ask yourself if you are equally as horrified when a black gets beaten up by a white. If you are not then, I think you harbor a sense of racial superiority. 

Second, the president of the United States does not need to comment on every event that takes place within the United States plain and simple. Third, why can't the president advocate for a city in the United States? The argument is made that there are other issues going on. Come on people, it is one day. How many days did George W. spend in the last Olympics simply watching the games while there was a war in Iraq? It is OK. It is great that a president wants to watch the Olympics, and it is great that a president wants to make a gesture in the support of acquiring the Olympics. The fact that the latter comments followed talk of black on white violence lends some supporting evidence to the statement that Jimmy Carter made in regard to all of the outrage about whatever President Obama does. The outrage has racial roots. You can disagree and not even like presidents, but ask yourself why? It is very difficult to confront our own prejudices, but confronting them is better than harboring bitterness.

New Format and Misconceptions

Well, I've changed the format of this blog because strictly discussing alternative education is too restricting for me. My life consists of much more than just alternative education.

One of my main jobs at our school is to manage students and their coursework. Most students manage themselves quite well. However, many students hold perceptions of the world that causes them to run into roadblocks in their daily lives. In the greater population, many people hold perceptions of the world that may not cause them to run into roadblocks, but certainly restricts their access to greater understanding. 

Two examples follow:

Student example: One of my students stated that she had no problem with men homosexuals but could not tolerate "dikes". The reason males will not hit on you while the girls will. "They'll try and turn you out." I tried to stress to the student that generalizing behaviors of any group is stereotyping and can be dangerous because you will invariably misjudge people who are nothing like the stereotype that you created. The misjudgment will lead to a lifetime of REgress instead of PROgress. You will sever relationships with people instead of trying to meet each individual and judge each by their character.

Adult example: Recently the news has been filled with loud, angry citizens shouting that this is not the country they grew up in which has also been uttered by Sean Hannity and who knows who else. My simple comment to these people is "the United States, like societies everywhere, change. The past was not some utopian dream world where everything was perfect. Do I have to mention these obvious facts: segregation, Vietnam War, Korean War, World War II, Great Depression, etc... Life is a struggle in all time periods. Open up some history books, hell, watch the History Channel and you may catch a glimpse of the hard times that have come before.

Both are examples of people with misconceptions and both seem unwilling to look more deeply into their perceptions of people in the first case and the past in the latter. I will continue to try and change misconceptions in my students. As for the adults, I fear the work is much more difficult.

Using Moodle

Well, I have been negligent about this site and I've only posted 4 articles. Let's get back to it. I would like to extol the virtues of the open source class creation tool called Moodle. Most colleges and many high schools are using online class organizers for their students. The University of Missouri St. Louis uses Blackboard CT. Teachers can post important messages, articles, videos, and anything else related to class functioning.

Moodle is an excellent tool for alternative education especially for students who want to work from home. This is important in alternative education because in many instances students are trying to regain lost credits. I already have a music appreciation class set up in Moodle and I am planning to eventually post many of my social studies classes onto Moodle.

Even if you don't have an all inclusive class in Moodle you can use it to post the syllabus and important assignments. I am hoping that posting assignments and various materials I can cut down on my copying. Moreover, when I want to change or update an assignment I can have it posted in minutes without having an excess of copies that are no longer valid.

Here is the link for Moodle if you are interested. http://moodle.org/

Best Practices and Functional Assessment

I have been commenting on the article posted on this site titled "Alternative Education Programs for At Risk Youth: Issues, Best Practices, and Recommendations". In the last article I highlighted the article's list of best practices. One of the best practices is to perform a functional assessment. The authors state that evidence has shown some success with this behavioral tool. It is stated that the main idea is to replace the problematic behavior as demonstrated in the educational setting and replace said behavior with prosocial behavior. "...replace the problem behavior with an alternate behavior that meets the same function for the student as the problem behavior but is more socially accepted." This process involves the student, teachers, parents, and community members.

The article does not really elaborate on functional assessment. In theory the idea seems valid and I do not doubt that research shows positive results from this process. However, this is not a simple plan that can be implemented easily. At my school the students only attend each day for a total of 3 hours. It is my professional opinion that it is very difficult to change or replace someone's behavior when you only see that person 15 hours a week. The school will certainly not be successful if the family and community are not engaged in the behavior or support plan as well.

Moreover, it seems a bit pretentious for individuals who are not psychologists and even those who are to assume that they can pinpoint the function of a behavior by filling out a few forms and then observing the student for a couple hours in the classroom. No doubt this process will yield some obvious clues as to the function of a behavior but behavior is often more complicated than the obvious short term "benefits" one receives from it. One example is that the brain may have a chemical imbalance thereby complicating any rational form of exchange theory. In other words, the student may derive no benefits from the antisocial behavior.

The idea assumes that every person is engaged in rational forms of thought. It is assumed that behavior is merely the result of actions that satisfy an individual. The person has to be rational if they can clearly derive a function from their behavior. I guess it could be counter argued that behavior serves a function whether the person is rational or not. In the end, the support team must micro manage the student and provide situations where the problem behavior can be managed and or replaced.

However, this is my main point; are the professionals changing the behavior or manipulating the environment to elicit different responses? Thus, you are essentially not changing behavior you're changing the environment and or circumstances where the behavior occurs. When the student moves into another environment outside of the school will these techniques transfer? I say no unless every component of the student's life is receiving the same intervention.

I have never seen these interventions work at my school for a variety of reasons. The most important one is the amount of time that the student spends in the school. The second is the micro management part. It is very difficult to get every team member to carry out the support plan in the same way. Again, let me reiterate that the environment is being manipulated not the student.

Am I way off in my assessment or am I merely deriving some satisfaction from critiquing another form of behaviorism?

Best Practices and Behaviorism

The next section of the article, "Alternative Education Programs for At Risk Youth: Issues, Best Practices, and Recommendations" defines the population characteristics of students in alternative programs. What we can conclude here is that there are a variety of reasons why students need alternative programs. One of the growing segments of student populations to enter alternative schools are those students with special education needs. Here in St. Louis this would involve students with an Individualized Education Plan or IEP. At my school IEP students comprise nearly half of the school's population. I will comment on this issue in another post.

The article next list some best practices of research based alternative education strategies. Of course, the low student to teacher ratio is at the top of the list. I think anyone would agree that students with poor impulse control do better in smaller environments many times for the simple reason that there are fewer distractions. Following small class size is a class management system based on behavior management techniques like a level system. It is highly recommended that the school emphasize positive behavior management rather that punitive. Coupled with positive behavior management is "clear and direct" instruction of rules. Naturally, reinforcement fades over time.

Behavior management techniques which are grounded in behaviorism is the method of choice for most behavior management programs and especially for those involved in special education. I am not a proponent of many of the tenets of behaviorism. I believe behaviorism has valid points and even agree that it is useful in some situations. I, for one, would not like living in the type of world described in Walden Two by B.F. Skinner. I fully understand that we all in engage in behavior that has been learned from reinforcement but my ability to think in abstraction allows me to envision behavior that contradicts what I have been conditioned to do. I have again become sidetracked and will have to re-visit behaviorism in another post.

However, I cannot get away from behaviorism yet because the next best practice on the list is to perform a functional behavioral assessment. I am all too familiar with this technique and will comment further in my post about behaviorism. Rounding out the list for the best practices of alternative education programs is social skills instruction which includes problem solving and empathy training and high quality academic training which include direct instruction, difficulty with material controls, and small, interactive groups.

My philosophy for blogging is to keep it short and sweet or at least short, so I will conclude by stating that this list of best practices are components of the schools where I have worked. However, the level of implementation and the long term use of many of these components seem to vary from school to school and within each school from year to year.

Which of these practices are most important for alternative schools and what do these practices look like? The last part of this question is a favorite line for behaviorists, "what does the behavior look like?"

Defining At Risk

One of the things that I'd like to do with this blog is to comment on various literature that is out there surrounding the concept of alternative schools. For reference, I linked an article called "Alternative Education for At Risk Youth: Issues, Best Practice, and Recommendations".

First, the term "at risk youth" has often been criticized as having a negative connotation. There may be some merit to this belief but essentially the term merely indicates that the student may slip through the traditional education system. Indeed, alternative schools were created to catch these students by offering a service that varies from the practices in traditional schools. These practices can be varied and disparate but they are all alternative.

This article begins with a fact that I have been stressing for the last few years; "although vocational training...may be in the best interest of students, schools tend to focus on the college preparatory track." Why is this I ask when according to the U.S. Census only 27% of the public has a bachelor's degree or higher. Yet, everyone is on the college track.

Schools need to get with it. Just as going green is one of the components of the major shift that Americans must adapt to in the new "flat earth" economy, schools must adapt to the new structure of the economy. Preparing everybody for college is a disservice to the 70 plus percent who have other plans. Moreover, college waste time when for the first two years you take the same classes that you took in high school. It is an inefficient system for the majority.

Ha! you thought alternative schools are for the small percentage of students who can't make it in the traditional school. I'm saying here that the majority don't fit in with the model of traditional school. Most of these students have just learned how to work through the system. Americans have built a system of education that allows us to reach the age of 22 and say I don't really know what I want to do. Adolescence has been gradually moving upward. What I mean is that kids tend to rely on their parents for a longer period of time.

Students should be made aware of what kinds of professions are available and subsequently design their knowledge base around these areas. High school should be a place where you start developing you profession or interest rather than preparing to be a good college student.

Well, I didn't get very far on the article but I guess I can examine this article over many posts. My aim above is not to say that schools have everything wrong, merely, that they need to update and become flexible. In essence we must stop recycling the 19th century delivery model. It is time to enter a brave new world.

What would a flexible and modern school look like?

Introduction to Blog

Welcome to my blog about alternative education in St. Louis. I have been involved in what is described as alternative education for my entire teaching career which is going on 15 years. I started at a school in Granite City, Illinois called Coordinated Youth. I worked with some wonderful people at that school who many of whom are still there. They are a dedicated group of professionals.

My next job was in Belleville, Illinois in a school called Safe School. There are several Safe Schools in Illinois as it is funded by the state. This was also a fine school that was well run and highly organized. Since I live in St. Louis I wanted to find a position closer to home. I answered an ad in the paper for an alternative school in Brentwood called The Collaborative School. I was hired and have been working at The Collaborative School for the last 6 years.

The Collaborative School was formed and is governed by the districts of Brentwood, Clayton, Kirkwood, Ladue, and Webster Groves. We have an eclectic mix of students who attend the school for a variety of reasons. The common reason for attending The Collaborative School is to catch up on credits. We mostly use a computer based curriculum purchased through a company called Plato. We offer two sessions of three hours each for students to attend. Since the Plato program is web based students may access their classes at any time day or night.

We can accommodate 80 students. We have a total of 9 to 10 staff members which includes an on site social worker who works with students to help guide them in their sometimes difficult life situations. 

I will use this blog to write about issues affecting alternative schools and to comment on issues that I think are important for all of us. This blog is soley my own and is in no way affiliated with any of the school districts mentioned above.