#10 Fastest Growth In the West...East...North...South...

Students who cannot speak English are quickly moving into Middle America and rural communities everywhere. Are we prepared? How many students do you have at your school and what are the plans implemented for the future? This interactive map details each county in America and the percentage of English Language Learners in each. You might be surprised to find that North Dakota has one county with the largest percentage of ELL students in all of America, Rolette County with 82.2%.

My high school played Rolette in football. I remember every one of their teammates had beards or mustaches as freshman and they were built like college football players. Needless to say, we didn't fair well against them in football. I am surprised to find they only have 500 students out of 3000 who speak English as their primary language. I don't say that because I'm shocked that non-English speaking students beat us so badly every year, but because I never noticed it in speaking with them before, during, or after games for three years. My current county has 24% ELL students, and it's hardly an issue except when we have parent/teacher conferences and we need translators. Parents of ELL kids are typically further behind than the kids. If anyone is in Rolette, or knows what language it is 82.2% speak there, I'd be interested to know.

What is your county doing in preparation for ELL students? What is the percentage of students who are ELL in your county? Some in California are starting bilingual schools, ESL classes, teachers who have SDAIE training and SB-395 qualifications. It all means we can teach non-English speaking students anything, even without knowing their primary language. My district doesn't hire teachers who aren't qualified to teach ESL or ELL students. Many districts around the nation do not have the percentage of ELL students as we do in California schools. Will the ELL programs in rural and Middle America be the next failed government program, or will we have a simple and slow take-over of English language in the United States? At the rate of growth since 1996, if it were to continue, we'd be a non-English speaking nation in a matter of 60 years and we'd have an increased achievement gap so large it'd be difficult to close. Surely, NCLB will be obsolete and invalid long before that since schools will simply not be able to meet the requirements set forth.

But seriously, how does Rolette County, North Dakota beat the percentage of Imperial County, California for the most ELL students? Is the math wrong? Did the New York Times report inaccurately?

#9 Seventeen-Year-Old First Grader

As the day breaks, mother would tell him three times to get up and get dressed. It wasn't until the waterfall flowing down from the cup of motivation she held, did it dawn on him she meant business. After getting dressed and eating breakfast, she'd help him get his things together and see him off to school. The school day started with calendar and phonics. It would progress into story telling time and then math using apples and oranges the teacher brought. When it came to reading, he'd let his mind wander and hide any frustrations he had by staying quiet. When is first grade ever going to end?

Could this have been the story of Antonio Rocha's life? I don't know. But if tested by the Mythbusters, I'd say it'd be "plausible." The reason being, he was a 17-year-old young adult who could not read past a 1st grade level. That is until he sued New York City school to pay for tutoring. My guess is that it took the dawn of a new day, one with bleak job opportunities for an illiterate person, to light the fire in this boy and his family.

Have you ever been embarrassed as an educator that the system has let one slip through the cracks? What if you had taught him at some point and found out he couldn't read as a 17-year-old student? I could speak for anyone who taught him and say I'd be a tad embarrassed. But should we really be embarrassed? Why did he move from one New York school to another throughout his education? I know that new students who enter even the best schools do not get fully assessed immediately upon arrival and are assumed to be literate anywhere above 4th grade level, typically. This is especially the case when students, parents, or former schools do not update the new teachers and district of the progress or lack of progress this new student has had over the years. Sometimes those cumulative folders take three weeks to arrive at the student's new school if they ever do at all. By that time, people like Antonio are moving on to another school or district, only to avoid the truth if not anything else.

Fortunately, or maybe not so fortunate, Antonio works for the U.S. Postal Service currently and has the fundamentals of reading. Who's to blame in his lack of education? Well, if the New York City School District actually moved him around from 11 schools on purpose, for whatever reason, I'd say they are to blame. The advocacy group and Antonio's lawyers would agree with that probably. The story isn't told. However, if it was his family who moved him around and he didn't confront his teachers year-after-year about his illiteracy, I'd say the family is to blame. Who's responsibility is it really?

If I hadn't taken initiative and figured out exactly what I supposed to complete or what I was exempt from completing, I'd never have taught. Nobody helped me figure out how to teach in California after having my education in North Dakota and a certificate in Washington as well. When I once considered living in Connecticut, the same held true. I actually had to inform the Connecticut State credential department exactly how the "and/or" statement written into their requirements meant I didn't have to actually complete that 5th year of studies, which would have set me back over $85,000. It took my persistence and three phone calls to clear it up. Why don't more people take initiative and take responsibility for their own actions or inactions? Why did it take Antonio Rocha finally, after having the bleak prospect of unemployment lines or digging ditches, want what was granted to him for free, education? Do you think the school systems should be held liable for peoples' lack of will power, drive, and determination to be successful?

Even with all that considered, the embarrassment would come over me like a wave had I taught this boy at some point. What kind of teacher allows his student to slip through the cracks? Did the teachers Antonio have ever actually require him to perform anything in their classes? How does this sort of thing happen?

#8 Dough Shortfall- Free Lunch Anyone?

Bachelor life lends itself to loving the hot lunch program. I've eaten school lunch with my class everyday for the past 11 years without fail. Families across the nation have been feeding their kids via the school lunch program for years, as well. Some don't pay. Schools all over America are serving free and reduced lunches. The National School Lunch Program was taken another step further in a town only 17 miles away from my current district. In Visalia, CA, instead of serving children of families who haven't qualified for the program and don't pay a cheese sandwich, they give them a full lunch. They do so in order to combat stigmas that may come with not having the money to pay for lunch.

My district has been known to be one of the few programs in the county to make a profit on the lunch program under the direction of our former "Soup Nazi." She was wonderful in more ways than one, but the kids who didn't pay got celery and peanut butter. That's hardly a high class cheese sandwich. It definitely curbed people from sending their children to school unprepared or without money. We have nary a need to consider using a collections department like Visalia does. They even are considering using small-claims court to get back some of the losses. According to this USA Today article, Visalia schools have gone from a $5,000 shortfall from unpaid lunches to $24,000. That's a lot of dough. They'd probably be able to make a lot of bread with it don't you think?

Would you suppose that without that school lunch program, these kids would seriously never have any food to eat? Why is Visalia so worried about everyone fitting in at all costs? Obviously, for some kids starvation isn't far from the truth unfortunately. However, given the fact that it would be reason to have your child taken away from you for child abuse, I highly doubt people are starving their kids to the extent they cannot afford one meal a day. Meals at regular price are a mere $1.50 for a full hot-lunch program. Multiply that by the 180 days of school, and you're looking at $270 for 9 months of lunches. If you take the time to make lunches at home, even less money. I'm certain that the reason why schools lose so much on their lunch programs is because a hungry child pulls on the heartstrings of every person. How are you going to deny a child food? Or worse, how are you going to make it be known they didn't have money to pay for lunches? Isn't that as bad as kids not earning their way onto sports teams legitimately?

In economics, a program will not be able to sustain itself if it doesn't generate a profit as Forbes details in this story. How far should we be taking the funding of schools and feeding the nation? Is the system getting taken advantage of in Visalia?

#7 T.M.I.- Information Overload

The human brain is said to be capable of holding more than 200 gigabytes of information. Have you ever felt like it's too much? File cabinets overflowing, shelves and closets spilling out once opened, and computers, media, and internet invading our lives and minds are endless. How about cars in the driveway because the pack rat has won and the garage is full? Can you keep all the information straight that you learned as recently as a week ago? How about yesterday's meal, can you remember what it was? If you're like me, you've found your limit on more than one occasion. After years of always wanting the next best thing, or know more information than the average person, I've come to realize there is such a thing as T.M.I. or even too many things. Am I suffering from academic overload? Are my students falling prey to T.M.I. as well?

First of all, let me say I appreciate educational resources and having such a "problem" as we have at my current school district. We have video boards running announcements all day. Our school subscribes to things like Edline.net, Edusoft.com, Unitedstreaming.com, Accelerated Reader and Math. Soon, we'll have distance learning with N.A.S.A. and any other programs available for two way distance learning. We have to manage more information than I've ever dealt with as a human being. If you understand California schools, even affluent districts might legitimately complain about having few resources. The first year of teaching taught me how to evaluate my needs and learn how to conserve. We actually did not have math text books and literally didn't have desks for every student in our classrooms. Teachers were allotted 9,000 copies per year at that school, while others were given 3,000. Ditto machines were the norm and we could make as many copies with that beast as our little hearts desired. Resources at the "best school" in the district were vastly limited at HESD.

That first year experience really fed the pack rat in me. Teaching twelve years of various subject matter, I've been known to keep things I may only use once. As a teacher, do you repeat lessons often? The lessons I teach are similar, but rarely are they identical. Whether you're still working for the same district, school, or boss, you might find yourself changing grade levels and subject matter every few years. Since the beginning of my career, I've taught 4th, 5th, and 6th grades. Throw 7th and 8th in the past few years, and I've taught every subject imaginable and even have an Early Childhood Education background. When did I decide that too much information was too much? This past year is when I let it all go. I figured out a few years ago that the belongings I stored in a storage unit for $80/month was not worth much more than $400 in total. Should we do the same with educational resources? Do computers and internet breed mutant pack rats within us all? Have I posed so many questions, your head is swimming?

If you feel like you're swimming in too much information, you're not alone. With the internet holding endless tidbits, useful and not, we can be overwhelmed. After collecting information for years, I personally hold more than 2,000 gigabytes of information on various hard drives. Granted, I have also been involved with video and music editing, I do have more than 50 gigabytes of information related to school. My tech department loathes my academic overload. I might be one of few. Looking on our network, I see that other teachers may have a mere 600 MB! That means I have more than 50 times the documents, files and pictures than some colleagues.

Does lack of information limit our ability to learn? Do you suppose too much information limits our ability to learn?