Blogs on Middle (6-8)

I was a college student the first time I remember hearing about Juneteenth, the annual holiday established to commemorate and celebrate the emancipation of the last African chattel slaves in the United States in the state of Texas.

This Sunday, Father's Day, would have been my father's 92nd birthday. It's a day that reminds me how important it is to show our fathers how much we appreciate them while we have them with us.

Here are some questions you can ask yourself to see how well you are doing. You can also draw from some of these as an emotional intelligence-building activity with your students. It might help to refocus their future Father's Days (and yours) toward giving more enduring gifts than typical purchases.

Earlier in the year, I had our middle school Parent/Teacher conferences, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that 99 percent of my students (most of whom are Title I) have a computer in the home. However, there was absolutely no oversight of what was going on with the computer, because the only person who even knew how to turn the computer on, many parents claimed through their translators, was their student. The parents knew nothing of the box in the kid's bedroom.

An online colleague of mine, Patrick Ledesma, recently reminded me of the "door to door" law that states it is the school's responsibility to keep students safe the minute they leave their front door until they return home at the end of the day. However, this law now seems to extend to cyber safety and netiquette, making our responsibility to monitor children greater than ever because their world is now ever wider.

His name was Kevin (a pseudonym). He had red hair and freckles with a slight build. He was confident and well spoken (perhaps outspoken). He was probably the smartest student I had ever seen. His mother was divorced and worked a horse training operation by herself. Kevin had to take care of his two younger siblings. Every one of his middle school teachers complained about him. His attendance was horrible, but that is not why teachers disliked him.