Bronwyn Harris, Author

...from a sixth grader. One of my former students got to appear on a panel of middle schoolers talking to fifth graders about what to expect in middle school. His particular words of wisdom? "Don't let nobody take you down." I'm so proud. (?) He's the one in the picture who you can't see very well.

...than I can write about. So I'm not going to try - just going to let those who already did it show off their work. As with many, many districts around the state, my old district is handing out pink slips . (By the way, teachers, if any of you feel like sending me a copy (electronically or otherwise) of your pink slip/March 15 letter, I'd love to see them. My former district sent really mean ones and I'd like to see if that is the norm. The district hasn't really known how much money it has had for some time now. This started about 6 years ago maybe, when they switched financial software and all of a sudden couldn't find tens of millions of dollars. There are a few good schools in this district and everyone wants their kids enrolled. A very interesting blog post about NCLB and the Corridor of Shame. Adult illiteracy. Phasing out schools - often the same schools the district spent a ton of money on starting, when they were on their "new small schools...

So, I subbed for a fourth/fifth grade combination class in my little middle class island community here in the Bay Area and found a number of differences from my old school. 1. One of the kids had an iPhone . A fourth grader. Had an iPhone . Enough said. 2. The kids were all very concerned about the economy. Very concerned. Interestingly, I would imagine their parents are hit harder than those who are already living off unemployment/welfare/SSI. 3. It came up in discussion that a lot of the kids didn't know what "renting" a house was, or what a "landlord" was, but they did know the term "mortgage." 4. There was ethnic diversity, but it was very different. Instead of being black and Latino with a few Vietnamese kids, the kids were white, Middle Eastern, and Chinese. There was one black kid and he was totally the stereotype; single mom, behavior problem, can't sit still, etc. Needless to say, he was my favorite, because I am used to that. 5. ...