Where are Central Teachers on the International Beauty Units Graph?
In Chris Plana’s Language Arts classroom, the kids discussed Jerry Spinelli’s, Report to the
Principal’s Office, a very famous book for younger middle school kids. When I arrived, the class
was discussing alternative titles Spinelli could have used. The kids in the class voted and the
democratically elected winner was Bathroom Madness over the runner-up, Girls in the Boys
Bathroom. One student wanted a recount but Chris, appropriately, ignored him. Later, Chris
drew a Venn diagram on the white board. (Note: A Venn diagram contains two circles which
partly interconnect. It is used to show how relationships between two things are similar and yet
also different.) Chris pointed to the two circles on the white board. “How are Kabnoog—a
character in the book—and Mrs. Plana different?” One of the students piped up, “They’re
different ages.” Chris’ shoulders visibly slumped in fake pain, “Are you telling me that I’m old?”
The class laughed as Chris wrote “young” in the circle for Kabnoog and “old” in the circle for
Mrs. Plana.
In Pattie Rossbach’s science classroom, the students were discussing how to make graphs. Pattie
pointed to the ‘y’ axis on a graph on the Smartboard. “This side of the graph shows the number
of International Beauty Units. The numbers start low and go up.” Her arm rose as the number of
International Beauty Units climbed. She then waved to the ‘x’ axis. “These keep track of Mrs.
Rossbach as she gets older and older.” She then paused momentarily as the class caught on.
“And this line,” Pattie said as she pointed to a line graph running dramatically upward, is the
relationship between International Beauty Units and Mrs. Rossbach as she gets older.” Students
in the class started to giggle. Mrs. Rossbach stared at the class with a deadpan look. “Notice in
the graph how Mrs. Rossbach’s International Beauty Units increase in each passing year.” By
now everyone in the class was either laughing or smiling.
In Alison Tsuchiya’s language arts classroom, the students worked on the root words ‘mot,’
‘mov,’ and ‘mob,’ which as all adults know who believe American schoolchildren don’t know
anything, means to “move.” Alison shook a bag of note cards before the class. “Get in your
group and match up the correct word containing the root word with the definition.” I sat down
with a group of boys who immediately began arguing. “It’s this one,” said a boy while sliding a
definition toward a vocabulary word. “That’s wrong,” said another as he pulled the card back.
Later when Alison totaled up the points for each group, the boys discovered they had come in
last place. “I told you it was wrong,” said the one boy to the other.
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Random Hallway Moment: I was again standing in the middle of the eighth grade hallway,
once doing my best to act as if I knew what I was doing. Several girls came up to me. “Can I
introduce myself and get your signature?” I nodded my head affirmatively, because Vicki Olson,
our AVID teacher, had warned me this was going to happen. The girl looked me straight in the
eye and extended her hand, “Hello. My name is ________.” She then pumped my hand up and
down several times. “Very pleased to meet you,” I replied. “I am Dr. Schmidt.” I took the paper
she was carrying, signed it, and gave it back to her. I then said, “I like how you had good eye
contact and a good firm handshake.”
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Advice for Parents
What is going on with Instagram and Top Ten Lists?
One of the crazes going around is for kids—this is happening all over the United States—to swap
photos and then place them on Instagram and create collages of Top Ten Lists. Most of these
lists are harmless but some of them are not. One of the not harmless crazes going around is for
kids to post “HOT or NOT” Instagram pages. Then then put pictures of other kids they have
borrowed, taken, or copied from other sources and place them on the page with either the word
HOT or NOT on top of the image.
You can imagine how exciting it is for kids to discover someone has arbitrarily decided they are
NOT hot. Nobody—and I mean nobody—likes to be identified as NOT hot. Kids from all grade
levels tend to make these top ten lists, from elementary to high school kids, but most of these
lists are being made by girls. For whatever reasons, middle school girls are much more active on
social media sites than boys and consequently are much more likely to dis somebody via a top
ten list.
Do not let your child make top ten lists, especially those with a negative slant. This is how cyber
bullying begins
The problem gets worse because many of the creators and owners of these Top Ten sites hide
behind the protection of the site and won’t reveal their real identity. This gives them anonymity
to slam anyone they want. The problems are compounded because middle school kids think it is
cool to have 400 or so people who “like” them. All this means is there are now 400 additional
kids, plus their friends, who have access to their picture. The numbers can easily swell to over a
1,000 kids who have some type of access to a picture which someone has innocently posted on
their social media site.
Because most students have teachers directly observing them in class and because the school
district has very aggressive and effective filtering options on their computers, virtually all of
these problem web sites and pages—including Instagram—are created at home or while the child
is using a smart phone which has been given to them by the parent.
The solution is not to take away the phone or computer from your child forever, but to pay
attention to where your son or daughter is going online and repeatedly talk to them about internet
safety and “being nice online.” Know all their passwords. Don’t ever let them delete the history
of their web browsing. If they are deleting the history, you should immediately go to Def Con 4
because no matter what your child tells you, they are almost certainly lying to you and are
deleting traces of websites they know they shouldn’t be on. They are counting on your
gullibility. Kids who are appropriately going online don’t delete the history because they have
nothing to hide. Watch out for dummy accounts. Look at their fingers when you unexpectedly
enter the room. Many kids have practiced the fine art of switching screens quickly when mom
and dad enter the room.
Don’t panic, but be vigilant and pay attention. Kids need to have the social skills to act
appropriately in an online account. These are not skills genetically given to them. They must be
modeled and taught.
Important Note: Instagram does not recommend that anyone under the age of 13 use their site.
However, signing up for Instagram is easy. All you need is an email address and a made-up user
name.
Second Important Note: Lots of middle school kids under the age of 13—all over Minnesota and
elsewhere, have Instagram accounts. Rarely have parents given their child permission to create
and maintain these accounts.