On March 14, I gave each of my 7th grade math students a little 50-cent pie that I’d bought at Walmart for Pi Day. (It’s a math thing; look it up. 😉) I had the kids go outside for this because they were definitely not going to be munching on pies in my portable, especially since the custodians are short staffed and my room doesn’t get the attention it needs.

I took group photos of each of my class periods with their pies and made them the cover photo of each class’s Google Classroom, which they seem to have enjoyed.

Upon showing my mom the photos, she started counting how many were wearing a mask. Keep in mind that we were outside eating and it’s been nearly a month since the end of the mask mandate.

Here are my counts:

54 of 55 7th graders pictured are wearing a mask.

21 of the 54 have the mask pulled down enough that at least their nose is visible.

14 of the 54 have the mask pulled down far enough that both their nose and mouth are showing.

Now that masks are optional in NM schools, the next task is going to be to convince students, as well as the majority of my colleagues, that’s it’s time to go mask-free.

With the majority of both staff and students at my school still wearing masks a month after the mask mandate lifted, I’m starting to wonder how much longer we are going to *allow* masks at school.

Students cannot wear hats, hoods, or sunglasses indoors, yet we are continuing to allow masks to cover over half of the child’s face.

My opinion is that starting next school year if not sooner, masks should only be allowed as an ADA accommodation for those with a serious health problem and must be N95, not cloth or surgical masks.

Albuquerque Public Schools lost 7% of its students in one year.

The lack of effort to account for these missing children is rather astounding.

Did they switch to a different schooling option (private, charter, another district, homeschool)? Did their families move? Are they just home and not attending school of any kind?

Does anybody care to find out?!

https://www.abqjournal.com/2482136/so-where-did-5500-aps-students-go.html

We don’t allow hats, hoods, beanies, or sunglasses in the classroom because they are a distraction.

So what do we call a cloth mask that covers the child’s nose and mouth? 🤔

This is the policy in APS too. I’ve been taught that if a child wants to be called a different name and/or pronouns at school, I am to do so and not tell the parents unless the parents specifically ask about it. I have not yet had to face this with any of my students, but I know we have kids at my middle school who go by a different gender at school than at home.

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/a-moms-fight-to-save-her-daughter-from-trans-orthodoxy-at-school/?fbclid=IwAR0VneS9BsWHetzK4udqVV7FVIiQSpnETy05ql25wyGYEvFh5waplqnFmRc

This is apparently from Salem-Keizer Public Schools in Oregon. Highlights are from the original poster, not me.

“In other words, the majority of kids in two out of every five schools in the Albuquerque Public School district missed 18 or more days in the 2020 to 2021 school year. In some schools, up to 80% or 90% of the students were chronically absent.”

https://www.krqe.com/news/education/which-albuquerque-schools-have-the-worst-attendance/?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=socialflow&fbclid=IwAR0Fe6neLw5uUdJCo5gj4jf-CgQaznSpYM-9TOj01jQu845in6LpfQTx5lo

Imagine how racist you have to be to think that “black and brown” students shouldn’t be expected to do math on grade level like their peers.

SWBAT = students will be able to

Seen on Facebook

“He found that teachers with the highest grading standards increase their students’ end-of-course scores on standardized tests by 16.9 percent of a standard deviation over teachers with the lowest grading standards.”

Not shocking at all! My students complain that I give too much work, it’s too hard, etc, but I regularly remind them that the reason I push hard is because I want them to be at grade-level proficiency and have developed a strong work ethic and study skills by the time they get to high school.

https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/when-teachers-are-tough-graders-students-learn-more-study-says/2020/02?utm_source=fb&utm_medium=soc&utm_campaign=edit&fbclid=IwAR0ZnbyLR39S0etsdM7iGB4MqUzqBuHJ0sjebIpccqVEf4GuTQ21VoQg5kY

Reportedly from 3rd grade in Tucson, Arizona