Dave McDivitt

I have been off the blog for a couple of weeks.  Mainly due to my travels to Italy and Austria.  I, along with 3 other high school teachers, led a group of 44 people to Italy and Austria.  This is the 6th time that I have been a part of a student trip.  As always, the trips are fun, exciting, and yet exhausting.  Group travel is difficult but with a bunch of teenagers is even more demanding.  We keep them as busy as possible because down time is time for them to cause trouble.  Also, I don’t believe that we should spend thousands of dollars to go to Europe and relax in our hotel rooms all day.  We can do that at home.

So, we spent two days in Rome.  Seeing all the major sites that one should see in Rome.  Being a World History teacher, I was thrilled with the opportunity to visit many of the Ancient Roman sites.  It is a time period in history that I have always enjoyed and now seeing a small portion of the remains of Rome was an experience that I will never forget.  I also believe that Rome may have been the favorite place for our students to visit.  Big city, busy streets, lots of shopping and yes even a little history mixed in.  After Rome, we headed to Florence, which was every bit as exciting as a world history teacher.  To see the works of Michelangelo like David was incredible.  We also had a couple of side trips to Assisi and Pisa while in Italy.  Both places worth our time.  Especially Assisi. 

After we finished our time in Italy we headed to Innsbruck, then to Salzburg and we finished in Vienna.  I love all three of these places but Innsbruck and Salzburg we had so little time it was hard to enjoy them.  Vienna on the other hand is always one of my favorite ports of call.  St. Stephen’s Cathedral is fantastic no matter how many times I see it.  I also love the history of the Hapsburg family which is tied to Vienna. 

And of course the food in Europe is worth the trip.  Italy and food……..incredible……I can’t say it any other way.  I also love the fare from Austria.  I have certainly had enough espresso, Kaffe, Latte, Macchiato combos for a month. 

Student travel is a hassle.  It can be an incredible headache.  Kids can misbehave, be disrespectful, be homesick, and whine about the different culture, language, and sleeping arrangements.  But all of that is worth it to hear them speak about the experiences of seeing Europe.  I have traveled with students 6 times and I look forward to number 7.

Just wanted to post and let anyone who is interested know that I have joined an online community called We Are Teachers.  You can link up to my page on the sidebar and check it.  The site is still in Beta stage but will soon be fully operational.  I will be discussing the use of games in education, sharing ideas, how I lesson plan with games etc…

My wife and I visited the Indianapolis Art Museum yesterday to see the Roman Art exhibit.  The pieces are on loan from the Louvre in Paris.  After a stop at Starbucks for a cup of overpriced joe and a scone we hit the museum early.  Luckily I had a friend visit the exhibit recently and he had mentioned what a massive crowd he had to fight.  With that warning in mind we hit the road early.  We enjoyed seeing the pieces from Roman Antiquity.  We both were fascinated with the mosaics, facades, and every day items like wine cups, rings and earrings and the like.  There is also a large full body statue of Augustus.  The first Empereror of Rome is obviously an impressive title for history and to gaze at a statue that Augustus may have also admired of himself is awakening.  That is why I love museums.  Internet field trips, videos, and books all have their place in the classroom but the experience of seeing for yourself is hard to replicate.  I am leading a trip of students and parents to Rome (Italy and Austria) this year and spending some time with the Roman artifacts in Indy made me more excited to take my students to see The Forum, St. Peter’s Basilica and The Colosseum in person.  And even though I am an avid supporter of games……a computer screen and digital animation can’t replace the real thing.

And for good measure, after leaving the museum we hit P.F. Chang’s for lunch.  It was my first trip to P.F. Chang’s and I would certainly go back.  My wife loves the place and has been many times with her girlfriends.  So my day started with coffee from Seattle followed with Ancient Rome and was completed to a meal from modern China.  Quite an interesting day!

During my time as an undergrad I was a Political Science concentration within my education degree.  So I have to say that following this primary season has been entertaining.  All the talk about illegal immigration, the Iraq War, energy prices, and whatever else the stump speeches have been about–the one issue that I have heard very little about is education.  I am a long standing member of the Indiana State Teacher’s Association and the National Education Association.  I have seen both Republican presidents and Democrats.  I have seen both Democratic and Republican Governors of the Great State of Indiana.  There has been one constant message from all of these people.  Education needs to change.  Yet it never does.  Will the candidates running for President of The United States of American really change anything when it comes to education in this round of leadership?  I think not.  President Bush said NCLB would change us…..it hasn’t….unless you count the endless loads of paperwork and mandates that come with it……without funding programs fully.  We still teach  and run schools in much the same manner as before.  Governors have pushed for charter schools.  They said it would force the public schools to get better….you know the competition model of education.  Well, charter schools are on the rise but public schooling has yet to change.  To this point in my career I can honestly say it doesn’t matter if a Democrat or Republican is in charge at the state or federal level when it comes to Education.  Education is still just education.  Something that politicians say they want to improve….yet they never do anything of substance to change it.  A little pessimistic I know but probably more realistic than anything. 

Improving education is a topic that is getting more and more chatter.  Recently it was announced that the state of Indiana will be involved in trying to improve science and math teacher training at several universities in Indiana.  First, I would like to say that I do not think education has a problem that needs to be fixed.  Labeling education as a problem is just wrong.  The United States of America is still a world leader.  Are there other world leaders?  Sure, and there should be so don’t be overly concerned that the EU or Far East is doing great things.  That just makes our world better and not something to fear.  Here is my opinion on how and what we need to do to improve:

Layer 1:  Parents-The breakdown of the American Family is causing us harm in the school systems.  Too many single parent families or even two parent families with parents working 12 hour days and farming child raising out to pre schools and day care centers.  Kids need to be with their parents as much as possible.  Period.  Then parents need to instill learned skills in their kids that will serve them well for the remainder of their life.  Things like hard work, nothing comes easy, pull yourself up by your bootstrap type mentality.  We need to break the cycle of “I deserve”children.  You don’t deserve anything in the educational world except for the opportunity to learn.  You don’t deserve a high mark in class…..you earn it.  Until this mentality starts to subside the USA will struggle to make significant gains in education.

Layer 2:  University Training-I dare to say that the people that are training teachers to teach are not the best. The system does need modified.  I have worked with many student teachers in my career and have one coming for second semester this year.  When I meet with university supervisors I often find out that the university supervisor has never taught in the high school classroom.  This is the same supervisor that will evaluate the student teacher.  Something seems wrong with that dont’ you think?  Also, too much emphasis is on content knowledge.  Teachers in training need some management help.  A possible solution would be to team up with university business schools and teach some HR (Human Resource) skills to teachers. 

Layer 3:  Administration and Teachers:  The teaching profession is an honorable profession.  I don’t know a single teacher that got into the business for “June, July, and August” mentality.  But I do know many teachers that are in the business that probably shouldn’t be.  This business is a people business.  If you can’t handle the people part of it I don’t care how good you are at your specific content knowledge you are not going to survive.  Administration and Teachers sometimes start looking at this job as just a job and it is not.  It is a little more than that.  We do influence.  We do guide.  We do direct.  We do impact lives.  Not all of them.  Maybe not even most of them.  But the ones we do impact can swing the pendulum back to success of the system.  And isn’t that what we are really trying to do?

Layer 4:  Students:  See layers 1,2,3.  If those are working then layer 4 improves.

Maybe a little deep for a day before Christmas Break but my thoughts have centered around this lately.  I would love to start a discussion about this and hear others opinions.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

The Golden Eagles lost in a hard fought battle last night to end the regular season 6-3.  We play Bremen next Friday in the state tournament. 

 http://www.chronicle-tribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071013/SPORTS/710130329/1006

Oak Hill beat Alexandria last night to move to 6-2.  Final Score 56-20.

 http://www.chronicle-tribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071006/SPORTS/710060324/1006

Sorry for all you loyal Golden Eagle Fans I didn’t get the link posted from our game last Friday but we got beat bad by Madison Grant.  This week was different though.  We beat a solid Frankton team that was 4-2 on the year just like us.  Here is the link;

 http://www.theheraldbulletin.com/sports/local_story_272000323.html?keyword=secondarystory

The Golden Eagles (4-1) won a tight ball game in overtime last night 17-14.  Our Sophomore kicker nailed a field goal to win the game.  It was an emotional win, a fun win, but a game we should have won by several touchdowns.  Just kept fumbling the football!

http://www.chronicle-tribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070915/SPORTS/709150326/1006

We got beat for the first time in 15 regular season games.  We hadn’t been beat in the regular season since midseason of 2005. 

http://www.chronicle-tribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070908/SPORTS/709080340/1006

It was another good win for the Golden Eagles.  Next week is a huge game for us against our county rival Eastbrook.

   Oak Hill Reciever Makes the Catch!

http://www.chronicle-tribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070901/SPORTS/709010329/1006

http://www.chronicle-tribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070826/SPORTS/708260334/1006

The Oak Hill Golden Eagle football team defeated The Eastern Comets last night in our season opener. 

 http://www.chronicle-tribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070818/SPORTS/708180329/1006

http://www.kokomotribune.com/sports/local_story_230010224.html

Congrats to the Super Bowl Champions!!  Way to Go Indy!!!

I have to take a few minutes of time to compliment a fellow teacher at Oak Hill.  Roxann Clark teaches 6th grade science.  She is truley an innovator in what she does in the classroom.  In previous years I have helped by judging science fair projects.  Now every teacher and parent knows that too many times science fair projects are done at home……by parents…..or I mean students.  What Mrs. Clark has done is change the format of the science fair to a science festivle.  This is great stuff and is worth your time to read.

http://www.chronicle-tribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2006612130305