In the last two days, I've confiscated an iPod (because the girl put it away when asked, but then took ten steps away from me and took it out again) and a phone (from a girl who was texting during my class). I learned something very important: when you take something from a student, it automatically belongs to someone else. Thus, it is expected that you will return the item immediately to the guilty party because the person you took it from was not the owner.
Of course, this is the mindset of the middle schooler. Naturally, I laughed the laugh of the evil, not-cool teacher, and walked away.
Showing posts with label random. Show all posts
Showing posts with label random. Show all posts
17 December 2008
05 December 2008
Is diagnosing teacher burnout like determining recession?
Two Christmas vacations from now, will I be on a long-awaited, child-free vacation with my husband, drunk on daquiris, and realize that I've been living burnout for most of the last decade?
Supporting Detail One: I've been misspelling simple things. As an English teacher, and an often-maligned city teacher, I'm always very mindful of using language correctly. And I'm a good speller by nature, so when I make these errors I know that I'm in need of serious rest. The test prep books that were chosen (by someone else who doesn't even use them, of course) really suck, so I printed all the old ELA exams for my grade from the state website. I'm using them for practice and assessment, and after I labeled one of the sections I realized that I'd written "ASSMENT" instead of "ASSESSMENT." Though I can't say for sure if I can attribute that error to tiredness or if it reflected my real feelings about testing.
Supporting Detail Two: During seventh period today, the only day and time of the week that I believe in Satan, I found myself wondering, If I fall out the window "accidentally" is that considered an on-the-job injury?
Supporting Detail Three: Now that I've been able to log on to Acuity, I actually find it useful. This is the weakest example of the three, because I still have lots of valid reason to bitch about Acuity.
TGIF.
Supporting Detail One: I've been misspelling simple things. As an English teacher, and an often-maligned city teacher, I'm always very mindful of using language correctly. And I'm a good speller by nature, so when I make these errors I know that I'm in need of serious rest. The test prep books that were chosen (by someone else who doesn't even use them, of course) really suck, so I printed all the old ELA exams for my grade from the state website. I'm using them for practice and assessment, and after I labeled one of the sections I realized that I'd written "ASSMENT" instead of "ASSESSMENT." Though I can't say for sure if I can attribute that error to tiredness or if it reflected my real feelings about testing.
Supporting Detail Two: During seventh period today, the only day and time of the week that I believe in Satan, I found myself wondering, If I fall out the window "accidentally" is that considered an on-the-job injury?
Supporting Detail Three: Now that I've been able to log on to Acuity, I actually find it useful. This is the weakest example of the three, because I still have lots of valid reason to bitch about Acuity.
TGIF.
01 December 2008
A Post, Just For The Hell Of It
My new reward system went into effect today. It worked better with my morning class than my afternoon class, but that's typical. Teaching in the afternoon is nearly impossible.
I had fewer late students this morning, which was also a positive, but it's also occured to me that it's ridiculous that I have to jump through all these hoops to get the kids to do the things that they are supposed to do.
I've been a good little soldier and have been attempting to use more data. Of course, it took me about three weeks to be able to log on to Acuity. No one could figure out why, but then I realized that my old DOE e-mail account is somehow lost in cyberspace, replaced with a newer one I had no idea about with both my maiden and married names. In the meantime, I still haven't been able to log on to ARIS.
I suppose that the millions the Tweedians coughed up for these programs wasn't enough.
More importantly, I wish I knew when I was supposed to have time to look at all this data. While I don't think it's the be-all, end-all that the brainwashed educrats think it is, I do think it can be useful. But we get no time to look at it, or think about what it says, other than the fact that Johnny can't read because he doesn't come to school have the time and does nothing when he's there.
Each week I'm tempted to boycott our weekly common conferences. It's wasted time, really. There hasn't been a concrete agenda in weeks. And the programs were done in such a way that not all the teachers on a grade are at the meetings, because many of them are teaching. Last year, as difficult as it was, I found solace in the other teachers on my team. We all taught the same kids, and while a focus on instruction would have been more beneficial, at least we were able to discuss the kids who were challenging us the most and come up with ideas and solutions. We were truly a team. I don't have that this year, even though I am fortunate to have a great working relationship with the math teacher for the grade. We're a team of two, at least.
Otherwise, I feel like I am totally on my own. The curriculum guidance is non-existent, and we're always being hammered on using the data and using technology without any real conversations about how to implement these things.
Today I started my full-blown, hard-core test prep. It bores the shit out of me, but at least I don't have to think quite so much. So maybe this month I will be able to figure out ARIS. If, of course, I'm able to log on.
I had fewer late students this morning, which was also a positive, but it's also occured to me that it's ridiculous that I have to jump through all these hoops to get the kids to do the things that they are supposed to do.
I've been a good little soldier and have been attempting to use more data. Of course, it took me about three weeks to be able to log on to Acuity. No one could figure out why, but then I realized that my old DOE e-mail account is somehow lost in cyberspace, replaced with a newer one I had no idea about with both my maiden and married names. In the meantime, I still haven't been able to log on to ARIS.
I suppose that the millions the Tweedians coughed up for these programs wasn't enough.
More importantly, I wish I knew when I was supposed to have time to look at all this data. While I don't think it's the be-all, end-all that the brainwashed educrats think it is, I do think it can be useful. But we get no time to look at it, or think about what it says, other than the fact that Johnny can't read because he doesn't come to school have the time and does nothing when he's there.
Each week I'm tempted to boycott our weekly common conferences. It's wasted time, really. There hasn't been a concrete agenda in weeks. And the programs were done in such a way that not all the teachers on a grade are at the meetings, because many of them are teaching. Last year, as difficult as it was, I found solace in the other teachers on my team. We all taught the same kids, and while a focus on instruction would have been more beneficial, at least we were able to discuss the kids who were challenging us the most and come up with ideas and solutions. We were truly a team. I don't have that this year, even though I am fortunate to have a great working relationship with the math teacher for the grade. We're a team of two, at least.
Otherwise, I feel like I am totally on my own. The curriculum guidance is non-existent, and we're always being hammered on using the data and using technology without any real conversations about how to implement these things.
Today I started my full-blown, hard-core test prep. It bores the shit out of me, but at least I don't have to think quite so much. So maybe this month I will be able to figure out ARIS. If, of course, I'm able to log on.
20 November 2008
The Year So Far
I was so excited to teach sixth grade this year. My last group of sixth graders was wonderful; granted, they devolved into snotty, entitled, hormone-charged brats by eighth grade, but when they were sixth graders, I loved them. Generally, I like the age group and I developed several units that they found engaging, units I'd tweak, improve and reuse.
So at this point, with about a quarter of the year finished, I’d say that I’m disappointed. While I do have a tendency to look back with rose-colored glasses, I don’t think I’ve ever been this continually frustrated with my students. Overall, their behavior is not good; calls to parents and lunch detention haven’t helped. They don’t listen at all. I have lost track of the number of times that I’ve asked them to do something simple, like take out materials, hang up jackets, go back to their seat. They look at me and continue doing whatever they were doing and I have to ask at least once more.
Of course some of the kids are wonderful, hard-working and well-behaved. But there are more who don’t fit into that category. As for the parents, they seem to fall into two extremes: helpful or not. I’ve been using an online grading program this year, and it’s been a life-saver. There’s a component for parent access, so I was able to get several e-mail addresses so that I can send them grades and behavior logs. I’m more optimistic about those parents, but then there are parents who know that their kids are struggling, either with behavior or work, and they don’t want to get involved.
I need to do something. A few weeks ago my husband mentioned an article in the New York Times sports section about Craig Robinson, Michelle Obama’s brother, who is a college basketball coach. The article mentioned Robinson’s policy of punishing late players by making the whole team run sprints. He said that they were all punished to remind them that they were accountable to each other.
It got me thinking about accountability, and these kids, and how they’re really not accountable to the system. Their parents aren’t either. Teachers are the only ones who really get the heat when the scores are bad. And that’s a problem for a lot of reasons. Granted, the kids get bad grades, but most of them don’t seem bothered by them. They know they will go to summer school and get passed on to the next grade, especially the kids who are already multiple holdovers.
I thought about making the whole class do lunch detention the next time a few kids were bad. Then a light bulb went off in my head, reminding me of how pissed I get when my school implements things on the fly, and in a half-assed way. So for the past few weeks I’ve been thinking about how I can make these kids accountable to each other.
I think I’ve hammered out a decent plan. It still needs tweaking, and I won’t bore anyone with details, but I have hope. Instead of the whole class, the kids will be in small groups of four or five kids, and they will be accountable to their group for work, behavior and punctuality. They’ll get points for doing what they’re supposed to do. I know that I’ll have to build in some lessons about teamwork and what to do about the kids who absolutely won’t come on board. They will all be working towards a point goal instead of competing against each other. I’m aiming this more at those middle kids, the ones who aren’t doing terribly but aren’t working to their full potential. So far this year I haven’t taken any trips, because the kids just haven’t deserved them, but trips will be the monthly reward.
Once the ELA is over I think I will also enjoy myself more. I’m about to cast everything aside and do nothing but test prep until the test. I don’t feel great about it, and it will bore the shit out of all of us, but I feel backed into a corner. It’s pretty clear that test scores are the only thing that matter. Thank goodness that at least a few of my kids really do have genuine curiosity and a desire to learn. I’m sure as hell not cultivating it. By my standards, I’m not doing the job I want, but if the kids pass the test, at least the Tweedians will be happy with my performance.
So at this point, with about a quarter of the year finished, I’d say that I’m disappointed. While I do have a tendency to look back with rose-colored glasses, I don’t think I’ve ever been this continually frustrated with my students. Overall, their behavior is not good; calls to parents and lunch detention haven’t helped. They don’t listen at all. I have lost track of the number of times that I’ve asked them to do something simple, like take out materials, hang up jackets, go back to their seat. They look at me and continue doing whatever they were doing and I have to ask at least once more.
Of course some of the kids are wonderful, hard-working and well-behaved. But there are more who don’t fit into that category. As for the parents, they seem to fall into two extremes: helpful or not. I’ve been using an online grading program this year, and it’s been a life-saver. There’s a component for parent access, so I was able to get several e-mail addresses so that I can send them grades and behavior logs. I’m more optimistic about those parents, but then there are parents who know that their kids are struggling, either with behavior or work, and they don’t want to get involved.
I need to do something. A few weeks ago my husband mentioned an article in the New York Times sports section about Craig Robinson, Michelle Obama’s brother, who is a college basketball coach. The article mentioned Robinson’s policy of punishing late players by making the whole team run sprints. He said that they were all punished to remind them that they were accountable to each other.
It got me thinking about accountability, and these kids, and how they’re really not accountable to the system. Their parents aren’t either. Teachers are the only ones who really get the heat when the scores are bad. And that’s a problem for a lot of reasons. Granted, the kids get bad grades, but most of them don’t seem bothered by them. They know they will go to summer school and get passed on to the next grade, especially the kids who are already multiple holdovers.
I thought about making the whole class do lunch detention the next time a few kids were bad. Then a light bulb went off in my head, reminding me of how pissed I get when my school implements things on the fly, and in a half-assed way. So for the past few weeks I’ve been thinking about how I can make these kids accountable to each other.
I think I’ve hammered out a decent plan. It still needs tweaking, and I won’t bore anyone with details, but I have hope. Instead of the whole class, the kids will be in small groups of four or five kids, and they will be accountable to their group for work, behavior and punctuality. They’ll get points for doing what they’re supposed to do. I know that I’ll have to build in some lessons about teamwork and what to do about the kids who absolutely won’t come on board. They will all be working towards a point goal instead of competing against each other. I’m aiming this more at those middle kids, the ones who aren’t doing terribly but aren’t working to their full potential. So far this year I haven’t taken any trips, because the kids just haven’t deserved them, but trips will be the monthly reward.
Once the ELA is over I think I will also enjoy myself more. I’m about to cast everything aside and do nothing but test prep until the test. I don’t feel great about it, and it will bore the shit out of all of us, but I feel backed into a corner. It’s pretty clear that test scores are the only thing that matter. Thank goodness that at least a few of my kids really do have genuine curiosity and a desire to learn. I’m sure as hell not cultivating it. By my standards, I’m not doing the job I want, but if the kids pass the test, at least the Tweedians will be happy with my performance.
04 September 2008
Request
After three days, I can safely say that I have no real complaints.
I hope that doesn’t change.
Of course, every morning when I get to work I wonder what it’s going to be like to park in a few weeks, and other than my initial quick post, I never really elaborated on my feelings (angry feelings, in case no one picked up on that). To me, the decision just seems so mean-spirited. I really see it as another slap at the veteran teachers, though maybe that's a stretch. I realize that my own experience is limited to the two schools I’ve worked in, but it seems that most of the newer teachers live in the city and use public transit; I am in a school with mostly older teachers who have been in the system a while, and nearly the entire staff drives. When I lived in Queens I usually drove, but I did have to take the bus and subway from time to time. Moving to the suburbs made that nearly impossible.
I just really don’t get why giving us parking passes posed such a problem. The mayor talked about wanting to reduce the carbon footprint, but I think people are going to be spending a lot more time driving around, looking for a space.
What adds to my anger is my trip past Yankee Stadium on the way home, when people are parked all over the medians and sidewalks during home games. I’ve never seen a ticket on a car, and I’ve never seen a traffic agent writing a ticket. In fact, the last time I drove by I saw two agents talking amidst a sea of illegally parked car, not appearing to be in a rush to ticket anyone.
I can’t believe I spent all this time and energy writing about parking.
My bigger, really important concern is about my classes. They are very small. My homeroom has 25 on the roster, though only 21 have shown up. I can’t speak for the number of kids on register in the other two classes I teach, but about 20 have shown up in each class thus far. Because the classes are so small, I've already been able to collect a lot of information on them. I've done a reading assessment on several of them, and I have been able to just watch them while they worked on their baseline pieces, which has provided me with a lot of information. I have a couple kids who scored Level 3 on the ELA in fifth grade, but one of them actually can't write a sentence and the other one can't seem to get more than a couple sentences on his paper, even though he's had lots of time. I have a little girl who rides the school bus (which is unusual for a child who's not in a special education class) and gets resource room services, but she's probably the most attentive and focused child in the class. I have three boys who just tested out of ESL but who write better than most of the kids who are native English speakers. I also have three boys who are three grade levels behind in reading. I am hoping to be able to do reciprocal teaching with them very soon; I have some kids who'd be great teachers and that would free me up to work with those kids who need the help the most. Of course, if I get more kids, that will be more of a challenge.
So I get really optimistic and excited about all the different ideas I have for teaching them, but then I worry that one of those classes will be dissolved and the other two classes will become huge. Then I worry about how I would be able to work with all the kids, especially those kids who really need help. I almost don’t want to spend too much time organizing them into reading groups or planning too far ahead. I’m starting novels in both classes tomorrow; I hope I don’t have to backtrack and start over because I have a bunch of new kids. I’m trying to tell myself that if it happens, I’ll be ok, but I will be pissed. My principal may also have to excess someone if that class has to be dissolved.
So if you believe in the Class Size Fairies, please put in a good word for me.
I hope that doesn’t change.
Of course, every morning when I get to work I wonder what it’s going to be like to park in a few weeks, and other than my initial quick post, I never really elaborated on my feelings (angry feelings, in case no one picked up on that). To me, the decision just seems so mean-spirited. I really see it as another slap at the veteran teachers, though maybe that's a stretch. I realize that my own experience is limited to the two schools I’ve worked in, but it seems that most of the newer teachers live in the city and use public transit; I am in a school with mostly older teachers who have been in the system a while, and nearly the entire staff drives. When I lived in Queens I usually drove, but I did have to take the bus and subway from time to time. Moving to the suburbs made that nearly impossible.
I just really don’t get why giving us parking passes posed such a problem. The mayor talked about wanting to reduce the carbon footprint, but I think people are going to be spending a lot more time driving around, looking for a space.
What adds to my anger is my trip past Yankee Stadium on the way home, when people are parked all over the medians and sidewalks during home games. I’ve never seen a ticket on a car, and I’ve never seen a traffic agent writing a ticket. In fact, the last time I drove by I saw two agents talking amidst a sea of illegally parked car, not appearing to be in a rush to ticket anyone.
I can’t believe I spent all this time and energy writing about parking.
My bigger, really important concern is about my classes. They are very small. My homeroom has 25 on the roster, though only 21 have shown up. I can’t speak for the number of kids on register in the other two classes I teach, but about 20 have shown up in each class thus far. Because the classes are so small, I've already been able to collect a lot of information on them. I've done a reading assessment on several of them, and I have been able to just watch them while they worked on their baseline pieces, which has provided me with a lot of information. I have a couple kids who scored Level 3 on the ELA in fifth grade, but one of them actually can't write a sentence and the other one can't seem to get more than a couple sentences on his paper, even though he's had lots of time. I have a little girl who rides the school bus (which is unusual for a child who's not in a special education class) and gets resource room services, but she's probably the most attentive and focused child in the class. I have three boys who just tested out of ESL but who write better than most of the kids who are native English speakers. I also have three boys who are three grade levels behind in reading. I am hoping to be able to do reciprocal teaching with them very soon; I have some kids who'd be great teachers and that would free me up to work with those kids who need the help the most. Of course, if I get more kids, that will be more of a challenge.
So I get really optimistic and excited about all the different ideas I have for teaching them, but then I worry that one of those classes will be dissolved and the other two classes will become huge. Then I worry about how I would be able to work with all the kids, especially those kids who really need help. I almost don’t want to spend too much time organizing them into reading groups or planning too far ahead. I’m starting novels in both classes tomorrow; I hope I don’t have to backtrack and start over because I have a bunch of new kids. I’m trying to tell myself that if it happens, I’ll be ok, but I will be pissed. My principal may also have to excess someone if that class has to be dissolved.
So if you believe in the Class Size Fairies, please put in a good word for me.
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