RHS Parent Group Minutes, November 5, 2007
After the minutes, are two important articles on cell phone usage in schools.
RHS PARENT GROUP MEETING
11/5/O7, 7PM, RHS LIBRARY
In attendance: Principal Brian Levesque, Guidance Director Kimberly Marinan,
Monica Pacheco, Rita Bilyeu, Maureen Donahue, Mary Carlson, Jeff Carlson, Beth Waggoner, Sue Rubinstein, Janet Schmidt, Jeff Schmidt, Delythe Kracke, Jane Plucker, Jayne Gunther, Pegi Shea
WELCOME:
Principal Updates: Brian Levesque
Construction: Brian gave us the status of several of the construction projects, most of which are keeping up to schedule. The main front entrance should be ready for Jan. 1; blue hall bathrooms are completed and can be used. Brian said, "I have actually stood on the new stage for the auditorium, and everything is moving rapidly."
Freshman Academies: There will be data available soon from grades just entered. Anecdotally, there seems to be a decrease in the failure rate, fewer incomplete grades, and an increase in homework completion and attendance. Upper class mentors are still being finalized to work in the Freshman study halls. A major goal is to have the mentors prepare freshmen for exams in January.
DISCUSSIONS:
Cell phones: especially texting have become a major problem for teachers and staff. The school policy is "Off and Out of Sight" from the first bell at 7:27 in the morning until dismissal at 1:54. If cell phones are in sight during a test, the owners' scores will get cancelled. Further consequences include confiscation of the cell phone, an examination of the phone's "history" during school hours which may reveal other student cell users, detentions and suspensions. See articles below regarding texting in schools.
ATT: PARENTS!! Do not call your child on the RHS campus during a fire drill or bomb threat. Your signals may interfere with communications among emergency vehicles.
Suspensions: A new law will go into effect in the 2008-09 school year, making in-school suspensions possible. Currently and in the past, there has been no budget for a staff member to supervise in-school suspensions. Home suspensions will only be used when the student is a safety threat to him/herself or to others in the school. Brian Levesque that, in general, there are only 1-3 students suspended, and that suspensions account for less than 10% of all disciplinary actions.
RHS Website: now has teachers' contact information on it. The staff is still working on the site to be able to stream school announcements every morning.
Project Graduation: Beth Waggoner spoke about the Applebees fundraiser, Sat. Nov. 17 at Manchester Applebees from 8:30-11:00. A pancake breakfast will be served by RHS folk, and the cost is $5. Checks are taken. Please call Beth at 871-8422.
Also Project Graduation will have its Second Annual Art and Sports Memorabilia Auction, Feb. 8 2008. Last year, profits ran over $4000! The committee is also looking for people to donate things to be raffled. There is also free food and student entertainment. Save the date now, and stay tuned for details.
Senior Pictures: Many parents expressed dissatisfaction with the expensive choices offered by Grynn & Barrett Studios. Brian was asked to look into this contractor and consider other bidders for next year.
WORKSHOP: "We Wish We Knew Then What We know Now"
Or "Woulda Coulda Shouda"
The PG hosted three parents, Delythe Kracke, Larry Cribbin, and Robin Lockwood whose children recently graduated RHS and have taken different paths. Also present were parents of other graduates. It was a lively discussion yielding many nuggets of information. I will try to organize some here:
Re: Applications
--Organization- Set aside one or two file cabinet drawers for all college information. Use the "Choices" (for 08 grads) or the Naviance computer system (PG workshop coming in Feb 08!) to find which schools have good programs for your interests. Discuss going away for school or living at home. Consider travel costs in too.
If you're considering a military academy or ROTC, contact your congressman, and local recruiter in freshman or sophomore year. All Academy students must be nominated, and there is competition for the nominations. Also connect with a local alumni member, relatives in the military, other political figures.
Once you have narrowed down to 3-4 schools, make a chart or log with deadlines for applications, financial aid, letters of recommendation, etc. Tour some of these schools with a guide. Keep the schools' information packets in separate files. Save all paperwork. Stay focused.
--Applying online to a college often costs much less, and may even be free, than applying with paper documents,
--Some schools take notice of the essay part of SATs; some do not. Some give applicants essay topics they want to read about. The essay can make or break the B+ student, because so many students offer the same. Other decision makers include: what courses the high school senior took—are they challenging? Does the student have 4 years of math, science, language? Honors classes?
--If your student doesn't know what he or she wants to study, a community college is the best way to explore interests. There are also online universities to try out. An Associate Degree (2 years) transfers completely to a 4-year school; whereas credits from a few courses may not all transfer.
--if you apply for an "early action" or "early decision," make sure you know if the decision is "binding" or not. A "binding" acceptance means that you must enroll in that school. "Nonbinding" leaves you with choices in addition to that school.
--If you're applying to a division or "school" within a university, for example, the NEAG School of Education at UCONN, make sure it's what you really want. You may be locked into a major and course schedule that allows you no freedom.
--If you have strong ideas about your career, by all means declare a certain major. It will help you organize your education. People often changes majors, add a double major, etc. but it may take longer to graduate. An advisor will help you.
--Not declaring a major going into college leaves you free to explore futures; however, it might mean going to college for a 5th year. Another way to explore and/or build up credits you need for a specific major is to take summer and intercession courses. If the courses are at a different college, make sure the credits will transfer.
--You will be locked into a curriculum at the military academies. Everything is regimented, but some kids like that. Plus the education is ‘free." Students actually earn a small stipend. However, after graduation, students must work for the military for 5 years (with full pay of course, and free housing and board).
BOTTOM LINE: Study something you love and would be happy working at. Work takes up half your life! And be organized!
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Txt msgs creep in2 class; some say thats gr8
James Walsh, Star Tribune
Ask the students in Elisabeth Haen's journalism class if the text messages that they send so ubiquitously creep into their school work and the hands go up and the smiles grow.
"I write 'cuz' a lot, instead of 'because'," said Nick Miron, 17. "And I forget apostrophes."
Each month, thousands of students in the Twin Cities metro area send millions of text messages to their BFFs (best friends forever), sistrs (sisters) and prnts (parents). So it's no surprise that text-message lingo such as CU (see you), B4 (before), GR8 (great) -- and its absence of punctuation and grammar -- has migrated into school work.
Its appearance is dividing teachers iin Minnesota and across the nation. Some can't stand seeing the lingo in any form. Others say it may be a way to keep kids writing.
One official with a national teachers group has even suggested that schools could use text messaging to help students learn.
Kelsey Theis, a language arts teacher at Pioneer Ridge Freshman Center in Chaska, said texting might be helping students learn an element of writing.
"We talk about the different components of writing -- organization, idea, content and individual voice," she said. "But, a lot of times, students feel the need to stay silent. This might help them develop their individual voice."
Still, the seepage of text messaging into student writing is vexing many trying to teach the importance of clear communication.
Eva Pitzel teaches seventh-graders and ninth-graders at Lake Junior High and Woodbury Junior High in Woodbury. She estimates that 25 percent to 40 percent of her students use some text-message abbreviations and slang in their in-class writing.
"I see it as a negative! because they are not always showing me that they can write out the words correctly," she said. "To compensate for this, we spend extra time editing in class and we talk about the different languages we use in our lives. I have to explicitly tell them that it is not OK to write like that for English class."
This "code" shows up mostly in informal school writing, teachers say. Pitzel said she sees it more frequently in notes students write to each other.
"They know that the majority of us [adults] don't have a clue what they are saying, so it's a good form of language for secretive terms," she said. "What is a worse problem is students text messaging in class. That is rampant at every grade at all schools I've taught in."
That shouldn't be surprising. Despite schools prohibiting cell phone use -- including text messaging -- during class, many students admit to texting at school. That includes Haen's class.
Inn 2004, the Pew Internet and American Life Project said that 16 million American teenagers were using instant messaging and text messaging to communicate -- up from 13 million in 2000.
Nicole Muenchow, a social studies teacher at Champlin Park High School, said texting is rampant. "They're not even writing proper sentences, using punctuation or spelling," she said. "I keep having to tell kids that 'people' is spelled with six letters, not three."
Derek Anderson teaches composition and literature at Mahtomedi High School. He has mixed feeling about the creep of texting.
"I sort of feel like any writing is good writing, as long as you get your point across," he said. "But, for certain students, I think it holds some back. If you're writing a college application and you write '2,' instead of 'to,' you're not going to get the same response."
At least they're writing
But Karen Koehler said her students' formal writing remains solid. What students put in their informal work -- such as the warm-up writing exercises her White Bear Lake High School class goes through -- doesn't bother her.
"Really, I just want them to get started writing for the day," she said.
In fact, somme teachers are encouraged by the thousand or so text messages some students send each month.
Shirley Holm, who teaches at Ramsey Junior High in St. Paul, has become a texting convert, sending 600 messages of her own each month. She once texted her son the opening of the Gettysburg Address, one word at a time, to wake him up.
It's a comfortable form of written communication, she said. And that's not all bad.
"Maybe I'm not being as responsible as I should be, but I'm not so concerned about that," she said. "Kids have to be coached, mind you. We have to be clear in what we tell them about when this is appropriate."
Lindsey Hill, a 17-year-old in Haen's class at Mahtomedi, said most students know when texting shorthand is appropriate -- and when it isn't. And her teachers are very good about "making sure that grammar is not lost."
She added: "There's kind of a time and place for everything -- including when to use the slang."
Kathleen Yancey, a professor at Florida State University and president-elect of the National Teachers of Writers of English, said there are potential dangers to this new form of written language. "If I get so comfortable with text-messaging language, in theory, it's possible that would be the only linguistic code I was comfortable with," she said.
But, she added, "Most people figure out very quickly that you don't wear a bathing suit to church and you don't wear flip-flops to play football."
Since students have proven so proficient at embedding all these different communication tools into their daily lives -- with no training from adults -- Yancey said schools should find ways to incorporate those tools into teaching. If a student is proficient in texting, but not in reading Shakespeare, she said, perhaps a teacher could ask students to translate Shakespeare into ! text lan guage.
"Why not?" she said. "They might actually learn something."
James Walsh - 651-298-1541
James Walsh - jwalsh@startribune.com
And here is another link to another article on the topic.
http://tallahassee.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071019/NEWS01/710190347
Originally published October 19, 2007
Texting in schools frustrates educators
By TaMaryn Waters
DEMOCRAT STAFF WRITER
Back in the day, students used to sneak notes to each other in class. But these days, it's all about text messaging, and it's becoming a problem for teachers.
The School District has a policy that restricts the use of cell phones during the school day, but many students are finding ways to break the rules. Those students caught repeatedly will be sent to Saturday school or face out-of-school suspension.
Pat Weaver, assistant principal for discipline at Leon High School, had a dozen confiscated cell phones in her office by 10:45 a.m. Thursday. More than 100 students have been given warnings since school started in August.
"It's disrupting the educational process in the classroom," Weaver said. "The majority of the problem is texting. They love it. It's like an addiction."
Texting is a way of sending short messages from one cell phone to another. Students like April Lee, a junior at Leon, said it's a way for students to flirt with each other.
"You can see people sneaking to do it all the time," she said.
There's a three-strikes rule when it comes to cell phones. A teacher can take the phone from first-time offenders and it can can be picked up after school. Parents must pick it up from school the second time. If it happens again, the student is banned from bringing a cell phone.
Weaver has received e-mails from many frustrated teachers who are tired of catching their students texting instead of learning.
Teachers aren't the only ones who are upset.
One parent, Denise O'Neal, stumbled onto her 17-year-old daughter's cell phone habits after inquiring about a bad test grade. Her daughter, who attends Lincoln High School, was sending 30 to 40 text messages during the school day.
She was shocked.
"She should be listening to the teacher," said O'Neal, who got her daughter the phone in case of emergencies.
She called her cell phone carrier to find out the time of day her daughter was texting. O'Neal said most parents would be surprised if they probed into their children's cell phone habits.
Kathleen Yancey, an English professor at Florida State University and co-director of the International Coalition of Electronic Portfolio Research, said most parents give their children phones for security reasons.
"They do want to have a way to communicate with their kids," said Yancey, who is currently writing a book on texting and technology.
She said children are given more and more gadgets, and with privilege comes responsibility. "We should not be surprised when it's not used well," Yancey said.
Since most classrooms have phones in them, teachers like Cheryl Collier-Brown said cell phones are not needed. "During the school day, I don't see them as a necessity," said Collier-Brown, who teachers at Fairview Middle School.
Some administrators think it's not much of an issue.
Rickards High School Principal Pink Hightower said the are some students who may break the rules but the majority of his students are not using their phones to send messages in school.
Weaver said most parents have no idea about the texting problem in school. She said Leon tries to inform them whenever possible, such as during PTO meetings.
"They need to know this is serious."
Dictionary of texts:
AFAIK - As far as I know.
BRB - Be right back.
CTN - Can't talk now.
G2G - Got to go.
GG - Giggling.
H&K - Hugs and kisses.
POS - Parents over shoulder.
TOS - Teacher over shoulder.
TWD - Typing while driving.
Wan2 - Want to?
W/E - Whatever.
PXT - Please explain that.
SK8r - Skater.
BIOI - Buy it on iTunes.
B3 - Blah, blah, blah.
B4N - Bye for now.
RUOK - Are you okay?
TDTM - Talk dirty to me.
IDK - I don't know.
KPC - Keeping parents clueless.