Test Score Article

This article is a clear reasoned response to people who do not understand what AYP means and/or how AYP is reached.

To be even more telling, the Ledger-Enquirer, on FaceBook, shared this article and asked their readers "Are you considering switching from public to private schools due to recent AYP discussions?"

As private schools are exempt from AYP requirements, isn't that an awful lot like asking whether they prefer apples or grapefruit?

I'm Baaaaaaaaack!

If anyone ever says that they keep their personal life completely separate from their teaching, tell them they are full of crap. Well, maybe not out loud, but think it really hard. A major confluence of my professional life and my personal life ganged up on me and really did a number on me.

As (I hope) you noticed, I have not posted to this blog for about year. I mean I went and changed the name again, Room 308 now, but nothing else since the tech post last year. There are several reasons for this.

I was transferred, at my request, from teaching at the high school to teaching seventh graders again. I was widely seen to be insane, but I actually like seventh graders. When they act crazy, there is a reason. Their hormones are jumping around almost uncontrollably, their brains are rewiring, they are starting to realize they don’t really have to do everything every random adult tells them to do (or believe what every random adult tells them to believe). So I was happy to make the change. I knew it would be an adjustment, but I was rarin’ to go.

I was, of course, swamped the first quarter as I was adjusting to the new school, the new students, the other teachers on my team (more on team teachers in another post). I was able to keep afloat, but with 30-40 more students than I had had the previous five years, it was a lot to do.

As I was starting to get in the swing and get my feet under me, my personal life went BANG! My wife decided she was ready to move out and be on her own. That it hit me completely out of left field is probably an indication of real problems there. But hit me out of left field it did. I was sort of a wreck for the next several months. I was trying to teach, work out custody arrangements, figure out what happened and if it could be put back together. I really didn’t have the energy to write here then. And if I had, it probably wouldn’t have been much worth reading.

So between the professional upheaval (which I sought out) and the personal upheaval (which I didn’t), this blog has lain fallow. But, like any good field that has done so, I am hoping that now I intend to till it again, it will be even more fruitful and worthwhile.

I have had several ideas for writing posts during the year and now that I am in a position to work on them, I intend to start posting again. So, here we go again folks. Wish me luck.

Web2.0 Resources

These are some web2.0 sites. Many are interactive and all can be used by teachers of any subject at any level (with one exception). I encourage you to check them out and see if you can make use of any of them in your class. I advise starting with one you really see a way to get creative with and getting good with that one. Then, as you begin to master that one, try another.


The Machine is Us/ing Us is a little video that shows how much writing and reading are changing. It also highlights the need for educators to keep up.

A Vision of Students Today is another video. College students let us know a little about how much they use technology.

Blabberize allows the user to upload a picture and then record something to make it talk.

Bubbl.Us is an online way to create clusters/idea webs.

Classtools.net has different useful tools. I like to use the countdown clock.

Common Craft has a number of three minute videos that cleverly explain a variety of web2.0 tools, as well as a few other needed explanations (anyone see zombies?).

Dabble Board is an online white board.

Definr is the fastest definition finder on the Internet. It says so right on the page.

Delicious is a social bookmarking site. You can save websites you like, tag them, and share them with others. It is an online tool, so you can use it from any computer hooked up to the Internet.

Free Rice is a game site, but with a difference. For every correct answer to the different online quizzes, ten grains of rice are donated to alleviate world hunger. It allows players to start at their own level and then gets easier or harder based on the answers the player gives.

Gallery of Writing was set up by the NCTE to showcase writing from around the country. They have open submissions and encourage participation.

Glogster is a kind of poster that is fully designed by the user. Users can incorporate text, images, music and video into their work.

Live Binders is a way to collect and present webpages on related subjects.

Make Belief Comix is another comics creator.

Prezi is a new online presentation tool that is a step beyond PowerPoints. It incorporates motion and zooming to make presentations more dynamic.

Slide Boom allows you to upload PowerPoint presentations to the web. After that, you can embed them in blogs, wikkis, websites, etc.

ToonDoo is a comics creation website. Users can make a short comic strip.

Virtual Literary Worlds is a series of links to online virtual worlds based on famous literature.

Voice Thread is a multimedia collaboration tool.

Wall Wisher is a virtual classroom bulletin board.

Wordle allows you generate text clouds.

Zamzar is a file converter. You send one type of medium to Zamzar, like a YouTube video, and convert it to another, like a Quicktime file. This is one way to get around blocks to YouTube and show your students those interesting videos you find.

Random End of Year Short Poems

If I am going to encourage and insist that my students write, it is only fair that I do as well. I like shorter verse quite often: haiku, tanka, senryu, kwansaba. Here are a few I have written (mainly during lunch duty) in the past week or two.


where they hear music
all i can perceive is noise--
generation gap

©2010-Art Belliveau


the saddest fact is
i just cannot reach them all--
but i have to try

©2010-Art Belliveau


greeting his friends while
moving from table to table--
lunchtime is busy

©2010-Art Belliveau


outside the classroom
flying free from branch to branch
the joyful bird sings

©2010-Art Belliveau


The end of the school year comes,
at times seeming glacial in its pace.
Other times it flashes forward. It seems
as though I am living my life
as part of a cosmic traffic jam.
Moving in fits and starts, but aching
to find open road and cruise away.

©2010-Art Belliveau

Limerick 05/03/10

There once was a student in school,
Who never would follow a rule.
He'd sleep at his desk,
And make a big mess,
As he covered the whole thing in drool.

©2010-Art Belliveau

Swimming with Sharks 04/30/10

a darkened classroom
after school
on a Friday afternoon

the echoes of
the students’ voices
silently resound
in my head
as i sit here

papers are getting graded
grades are being entered
and yet...

i feel
(as i so often do)
that i am swimming
against the tide

being pulled away
from what i find important

being pulled under
by this rip tide current
of red tape
and record keeping

when all i want to do
is swim free
and play in the waves
of words
and books
and poems
and the creativity
of my students

©2010-Art Belliveau

senryu 04/29/10

as the year winds down
the students are "summer ready"--
the teachers more so

©2010-Art Belliveau