5 November 2009 Thursday, Nov 5 2009

I am SO tired.  I’ve gotten to school every day this week by 7:30 and haven’t left before 6pm yet.  However, I’ve been getting a lot done, and I’ve finished a big organization project that I started over last weekend.

Oh, and I’ve been teaching a little, too. *snort*

Teaching this week has been really fun, actually.  I’ve gotten to introduce the kids to square roots, to why squaring a number is called “squaring a number” (and cubing numbers, too!), to translating from English to “Mathanese,” and to basic one-step algebra problems.  I love algebra (never thought I’d hear myself say that!) and had a really good teacher for it in college, and I find myself using her way of putting things to teach my kids the same concepts.  They’re getting it so far.  And, my most difficult class to control has been mostly on-task this week with few discipline problems.  Have they been perfect?  Oh, no.  But I’ve gotten SO much work done with them that for the first time since the beginning of the year, they’re not behind my other two classes.  I’m getting kids to come in before school for tutoring, and they’re starting to take their own education seriously.  I love the improvements I’m seeing!

As I was driving home last night, I made a decision that I would stop procrastinating with the ACP stuff, and get my butt in gear to finish.  I said, self, you’re going to go on-line and FINISH that PPR review so that Texas Teachers will approve you for the PPR exam.  And then you’re going to plan and prepare to register for the PPR exam by the 15th, when I get paid again, so that maybe I’ll have it taken before the end of December.  And I did it!  I finally finished the on-line review and passed it.  I didn’t use any of their study materials; I just logged into the review and started taking it.  I was able to save my place when I got interrupted, which was often, until last night when I decided that I was going to finish regardless of what happened.  I got a 253 out of 300, and I needed a 240 for a passing “score”.  It’s really not a score that I give a damn about because it’s just the review.  It’s the actual exam score that I’m concerning myself over now.  The review…I could have bombed it and just gone back in to retake it with the correct answers in my hand the second time.  But I didn’t want to have to take the time.  This is just a stepping stone to the next part and I wanted it over with.  Anyway, I got an email saying that I’ve been approved to take the EC-12 PPR exam, and there are several places in the Houston area that are offering it many times before the end of December.  The only problem I’m seeing is that most of them are being offered during the day, during the week.  And I don’t know if the school district or my administrators would frown on my taking a day to take care of it.  I would like to find somewhere that’s offering it on a Saturday, but taking the time to find a place is more time than I have tonight.

So, I’m off to bed.  I have a short planning segment in the morning because I’m on duty for another teacher.  In the cafeteria.  I can’t wait.

Remind me that I need to buy stamps for the huge stack of birthday cards sitting on my desk.

Good night!

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1 November 2009 Sunday, Nov 1 2009

I am so proud of myself!  I have all my lesson plans for next week ready, PLUS I’ve worked out all my keys and scanned them into the PowerPoint.  Of course, it took an act of God to make it happen, but God’s good that way!

I started getting ready to leave for the day during 5th period on Friday.  The kids had started a test the day before, but due to my bad planning (you live and learn, folks!), they only had half the period to take the test.  So, since so many of them didn’t finish, I let them have the class period on Friday to work on it as well.  It worked out really well because the kids that were absent on Thursday were there on Friday to take the test, and now they don’t have to come in before school to make it up!  Giving the kids a chance to finish the test gave me an hour and a half to start getting my crap together to go home.  Before I can do anything, I have to file away the stuff I used for this week, except for answer keys I need over the weekend.  Then I have to go to my stash of worksheets (already copied for the grading period) and pull out what I know I’ll use, plus a few extras for just in case we get through faster than I thought.  I have to pull out the various resources I pull activities from, gather my binders of information for lesson planning, and make sure I have copies plus originals for key-making.  I need to dig out my scope and sequence, and check to see if I need the C-Scope for next week.  And somewhere in there, I need to check my email, because by that point in the day, people have become email happy and I probably have a couple dozen waiting for me to deal with.  I also have to double check my calendar to make sure I’m taking into account any observations that are going to be done of me and special events that might cut class periods short.

By the time 5th period had left, I had my briefcase mostly packed and just needed to run to the office to check my box one last time and make copies of just a couple of forms that I had run out of.  Back in my room, I had to fill out a couple of those freshly copied forms before I forgot what happened to make me need to fill them out.  Then I had to check my outbox to make sure I had filed everything that pertained to my students, along with the forms I’d just filled out.  And of course the stuff in my box created a few more tasks that needed to be completed.  Is that the call for car-riders and walkers already?!?  Aaaand now I’m on duty to make sure kids don’t run through the halls when their bus is called, and to remind them they are still in school and YES you still have to have your shirt tucked in.  Why are you in the hall?  You need to go back to your class before I find a reason to give you detention, sir.  They have not called your bus yet!  Aaaaand 30 minutes later I can finally get back to my room and finish what I started.

Normally, on a Friday, I leave the building after 7pm.  This past Friday, I was out of there by 5:15.  It.Was.Unbelievable.  It only took me starting 2 hours earlier than normal and not being interrupted by other teachers whining for me to babysit their class so they can leave early (that crap right there is going to STOP this week!).

Not only was I able to get out of there earlier than ever before on a Friday, but I was able to start working on building my answer keys.  And, since the Kiddo didn’t have band competition on Saturday, I was able to spend a good portion of the day grading those tests.  I didn’t finish, but I only have 1 class left to grade.  I finished my lesson plan warm ups and notes by noon and was able to take the Kiddo into Baytown for a haircut and to Wal-Mart in town for groceries and yet more classroom supplies.  THEN, I sat down and finished my answer keys, scanned them into my computer and copied them into the PowerPoint for next week.  AND I finished my laundry (except for putting away, but that’s a 2 minutes job).  And cleaned up the kitchen after dinner.  And it’s only 8pm.

Man, I love it when we set the clocks back!

This month is crazy-busy with stuff at school.  Next week is the last week of the grading period, so grades will be due again and I have kids with more missing work than actual grades.  Dumbassery at work.  I have at least one observation, a planning day that I have to make sub plans for, an early dismissal day that will require me to sit through an afternoon of staff meetings that will be mostly meaningless to me.  (I do realize that most of the information given during these meetings will someday be useful, but as a first year teacher, I have no clue what to do with TAKS stats.  I put them in a file and forget about them.  My mentor says that’s more than what she does with them, so I don’t feel too bad.)  I have double duty one week because I’m covering for another first-year who has a “walk-and-talk” session to attend.  I’ve been to one for my subject…yawn. There was more that I couldn’t use than I could.  But…the stuff I could use was awesome, so I guess I shouldn’t knock those meetings too hard for now.

On top of all the schedule interruptions, we have Thanksgiving holidays this month, which involves at least one more early dismissal day, plus several days off during which I need to FINISH THE ON-LINE REVIEW FOR MY PPR.  I have absolutely everything done to be fully certified EXCEPT for finishing that damned review so that my ACP will approve me to take the real thing.  Of course, even if I had the review finished, I’m not entirely sure when I’d have time to go take the test.  So, whatever.  December 30th is quickly approaching, and I am getting very scared that I will not have time to get everything done.

And here I sit updating my blog.  People!  I have too much to do!

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18 October 2009 Sunday, Oct 18 2009

I can’t believe how long it’s been since I’ve updated!  Over 2 weeks, which just goes to show you how busy I’ve been.  :)

Today is my planning day for next week.  I was “off” yesterday, so I have to work today.  That seems to be how my weekends have been going, and I’ve given up fighting it.  I don’t have a choice in the one day off.  I’ve tried working all seven days, and my brain and body just won’t cooperate.  I’ll sit down at my computer and just stare.  My legs will keep getting twitchy and I’ll end up taking a nap for the rest of the day.  It obvious I need the rest, and to stay healthy, I really can’t ignore it.

I really didn’t have much of a choice in my day off this week.  The Kiddo had marching band competition yesterday and my old band director, Uncle Jack, was one of the judges!  I was hoping that I would get a chance to talk to him, but I should’ve known better.  Those judges stay sequestered up in the press box and anything they need is brought to them.  They probably even have lunch catered up there for them!  But I did catch a glance of good ‘ol Uncle Jack and it was nice to know that he was up there doing what he does best.

The Kiddo’s school made a I at competition and will be one of two schools advancing to Area competition next Saturday.  So, I get to repeat this weekend next weekend! Yay!  At least next weekend I’ll know what to expect.  1) Go to bed ridiculously early on Friday (which means I’ll need to leave school before 8pm).  2) Get up at least an hour before we need to leave so that I can take a proper shower and get dressed in something besides t-shirt weight capris and a short sleeved shirt.  3) Bring a heavier jacket.

We had a cool front come in Friday, dropping the temperature from high 80s/low 90s to the mid-70s with a brisk, cold wind.  Sitting in the backyard is awesome.  Sitting high up in stadium seating with the sun in your eyes wearing t-shirt weight clothing, not so much.

Anyway, the kids performed beautifully and I was SO proud of them.  Their marching was fantastic, precise, sharp, but their playing…well, it wasn’t bad, but it had no umph.  No power.  You can tell that a lot of the kids were marching, but not playing, and that’s not good when you’re only putting 150-odd people on the field.  And it’s even worse when you’re one of only two military-style marching bands left in your region and you don’t play to the audience.  The new, corps-style marching keeps the players facing the press box at all times.  Old, military-style marching has the players facing the direction they’re marching at all times.  Sometimes, they’re facing the end zones and sometimes they’re facing the other side line.  When that happens, you almost can’t hear them.  Military-style marching takes a lot of volume to make up for the fact that your back is to your audience more than half the time, and the Kiddo’s band isn’t quite doing it yet.  They sound good, they’re just too quiet.

But they look awesome!

Last weekend was a 3-day weekend for me (we had Monday off for Columbus Day), and I took great advantage of it.  I rested on Saturday and then got to work in a big way on Sunday.  Last week was a really screwed up week, teaching-wise.  We had a lesson on Tuesday and Friday, but Wednesday and Thursday were lost to a district assessment.  It actually ended up working out beautifully for me because that meant I really only had two days I had to lesson plan for.  On Saturday, I got my worksheet keys done, and put together the PowerPoint presentation I’ve been using for my warm-ups and notes.  About 4 hours later, I was done with the week’s planning and was able to start on THIS week’s lessons.  I actually got big chunks of this coming week done, plus started working on the rest of the grading period.  I still have a little I need to do for this week (working out my keys and uploading them into the PowerPoint is one thing), and then I can start doing big chunks of NEXT week’s.  And that, really, was my goal last weekend.  Since I had an extra day to work, AND I had only two days last week I needed to write plans for, I was able to get myself about a full week ahead.  This gives me more time to plan for using manipulatives, games, and projects to teach with.  Before, all I could do was lecture, give notes, and do worksheets.  I don’t feel this is sufficient for my students to truly learn the material.  They need time for discovery, which guided use of manipulatives and games can give them.   I also had last week to go through some of the ancillary materials I’ve been given lately, and pull out some of the manipulative activities so that I can prep the materials.

I’ve been a little starved for feedback at work, but I didn’t realize it until Friday when I was meeting with my mentor.  (I say “meeting” but it’s not nearly as formal as that.  I usually just walk into her classroom after school, sit down and we chat for however long.  It feels more like a “visit” than a “meeting”.)  I was talking to her about my fifth period class and how rowdy they usually are.  I talk to her about them a LOT because they are my hardest group to manage.  It’s by far my biggest class, and they come to me right after lunch, so I have some really difficult days with them sometimes.  But Friday, I think I finally got over the “classroom management” issues with them and have moved into “instructional issues”.  So, I was talking to my mentor about the fact that with a class this size and this rowdy, I’m struggling with connecting with individuals.  I don’t have time to work with individual students, and instead I’m teaching the whole group all the time.  Whereas, in my other classes, I have plenty of time to talk to individual students, to work with the ones who are struggling apart from the group, and to form relationships and connections with each one so that they, as a group, are beginning to really settle into a comfort zone in my class.  I’m getting more response from my other classes, more discussion, more risk-taking.  I have kids there who aren’t afraid to speak up if they have a different idea or if they got a different answer.  They’re asking questions if they don’t understand or if they got an answer wrong.  And folks, it’s a BEAUTIFUL thing to witness!  But fifth period…they’re starting to get there, but it’s slow-going, and frustrating.  For some kids in that class, they will NEVER get to the point that they are comfortable with being wrong or making a mistake in front of the group or with taking a risk in how they approach a problem.  I hate it.  So, my mentor and I were brainstorming potential solutions, one of which might actually work (shifting schedules of students), when she stops mid-sentence and just looks at me for a long moment.  Then she says that a couple of the language arts teachers have come to her to talk about me.  I was sure that I was about to hear complaints.  Teachers are notorious for trying to tear each other down and for nit-picking someone else to take the spotlight off their own shortcomings.  But then she blew my mind.  Turns out, my students have started talking about me to their other teachers.  ”Mrs. A is my favorite teacher!”  ”I love my math class.”  ”I still hate math, but I like the class I’m in this year.”  ”I like the way Mrs. A puts stuff so that I can understand it better.”  ”She stopped the whole class so that she could explain something to me.  Nobody’s ever done that before.”  ”She’s always joking around with us.  I like it because it keeps me from stressing out over my homework.”

Seriously.  The language arts teachers were so overwhelmed with what their students were saying about me that they had some of the kids write down what they thought of my class.  Not a single one of these comments came with a name attached, but I’m starting to recognize the handwriting of my kids.  Two or three of them I can identify, but the rest are a mystery to me.  My mentor says that whatever I’m doing, I just need to keep doing it.  I AM getting through to them, I AM teaching, I AM making a difference.

Thank God.

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3 October 2009 Saturday, Oct 3 2009

Things are moving right along at school.  The first grading period ended Friday and I have to have grades posted by Monday noon.  I’m ready to post grades and finalize them, but I have one thing pending that I have to check on Monday morning, then I’m good to go.

I’ve been playing with my time on the weekends, to try and get more free time so that I can decompress from my work week a little more.  What I’m discovering is, I just have to go with the flow.  I’m doing better with getting papers graded and recorded before I leave school for the day and it’s been a couple of weeks since I’ve been more than a day or so behind.  But the weekend is my planning time, and some weeks take more planning than others.  Last week, for example, we covered problem solving strategies, which is one of my favorite topics.  Kids can get overwhelmed and bored with it, though, so I used my mad skills with PowerPoint to make the lessons both clearer and more interactive.  The downside was that it took me much longer than usual to get my week planned out.  Was it worth it?  Definitely.  But it’s just another example of how I can’t really make a schedule for myself and expect to carve it in stone.

This week, I don’t expect my planning to take much time at all.  All I’m using my projector for will be the daily warm up and TAKS prep problem, and to display the answer key to last night’s homework.  The rest of the lessons will need to be me at the front of the class, working problems on the board.

I’ve made it a full six weeks.  If you count the two weeks of orientation before school started, I’ve been at work for two months now.  It feels strange to me, still.  I still hesitate to say that I’m a teacher, even though I’m nearly bursting with pride at the accomplishment.  Am I a teacher?  Hmmm…  That’s not an easy question to answer.  I do teach, but I’m still learning the craft.  I make LOTS of mistakes, and spend quite of bit of time trying to figure out how to fix them.  But every day I’m getting closer to knowing that I am a “teacher” in the truest sense.  My school mentor keeps telling me that I can’t do it all in my first year.  While I agree, I still try to do more, to improve on what I’m currently doing, to streamline the processes that happen in my class, and to ultimately get better at what I’m doing.  Can I become the “World’s Best Math Teacher” my first year?  No, in fact it may never happen.  Can I aim to be a good teacher my first year?  Absolutely, and I plan on it.

This week, I also met my alt. cert. mentor for the first time.  She did a formal observation of the second half of my last, and worst-behaved, class.  I bribed them with candy if they would behave for me.  Oh, yes.  I went there.  And I told on myself, too.  The funny thing is, that class has such character, and I would love to just sit and chat with them for hours.  But I have a job to do, and we have math to learn, so I have to work very hard to curtail their tendencies to socialize.  My mentor said they behaved beautifully for me and that I obviously have a good grasp on handling them.  She said they wouldn’t have responded so positively to the bribery if they didn’t trust me to follow through and respect me enough to comply.  If the kids don’t respect you, no amount of bribery will make them behave.  Overall, she was happy with the lesson and how I was presenting the material, she was impressed with the PowerPoint I had put together, and she had a few very minor things that might help me get more participation from more students.  Her suggestions were interesting and at least one of them I have already started to use, so the observation was helpful all-around.

She also asked me where I was at in the certification process.  I told her that I had finished the training, completed the professional development hours (though I still need to fax the log over to the office), and have started the on-line review for the PPR.  I expressed concern that I was woefully behind because I’d wanted to have the PPR taken by now.  She assured me that I was WAAAAY ahead of most of her other mentees (which, considering how last-minute most people are, does NOT comfort me), and that I shouldn’t worry.  She also said that I did exactly what I should have for the first six weeks: I concentrated on teaching.

So, my mind is at ease this weekend as I plan on my topic for next week: converting fractions, decimals, and percents.  Judging by the groans and looks of panic I got from my students when I told them what we were doing next week, this should be a fun unit.

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12 September 2009 Saturday, Sep 12 2009

So, I went in to work yesterday.  Got there around 7:30 – about an hour before school starts and a full 30 minutes before tutoring begins.  I had a test to finish grading because I wanted to be able to go over it with the kids.  No such luck.  If an interruption could have happened yesterday, it did.  We have progress reports going out Tuesday morning, and I have to have my grades and conduct uploaded by Monday morning.  So, to keep from bringing home nearly three days worth of grading, I stayed late and got it all done.  I left the building around 9pm.

Count closely.  That’s nearly 14 hours in my classroom yesterday.

From now on, I’m bringing some of that stuff home to grade at night.  I’d rather keep up with it during the week than have a shit-ton to bring home on Friday, thereby killing any hope of a weekend I might have had.  I’ve ended up bringing it all home on Friday so far (except for yesterday), and I’ll grade papers all day on Saturday, and barely get a start on lesson plans.  Then, on Sunday, I have to finish lesson plans and daily warm-ups and I have no down time.  I do believe that’s a quick way to burn yourself out.

Today, since I had no papers to grade and no grades to upload, I was able to spend 4-5 hours this afternoon lesson planning and making a list of things I need to either copy or make overhead transparencies out of.  I also re-did my seating charts to separate kids that are giving me headaches and perhaps create a better balance between partner work.  I still have to go through the worksheets we’re doing this week and make answer keys, but I’ll do that tomorrow.  I have all my originals made and have copies of them ready to work on, so I’m set and just need to go.

I’m really hoping to have a good couple of hours to veg on The Sims 3.

My first week of teaching…whew!  I was totally overwhelmed with everything.  I had too much information on what I needed to include in my lessons, but not enough information about how to handle the administrative side of the whole First Day Paperwork.  And then we had the whole immunization issue to deal with.  Of course, I would be teaching a grade level that was affected by the new requirements.  Of course – because I’m just that fortunate!  I hadn’t had time to create any real lesson plans, other than some outlines of what I needed to cover on which days.  The first two days were supposed to be dedicated to rules and routines.  After that, I had no plan.  For the second week, I spent considerable time creating detailed lesson plans the way I was taught in college.  I quickly realized that those lesson plans are WAY too rigid and allow no flexibility for tasks that take longer than expected.  But I got through it.  I felt like I was running behind all the time, and I was, but I pushed through and made it.  At the end of the second week, I realized that all I was doing was getting kids to do worksheets – and not very successfully in some cases – but I started to doubt whether I was really teaching.  The test I gave that Friday proved I WAS teaching because most of my students passed with an A or a B.  Sure, a few of them failed, but considering the types of inclusion cases I have, that’s to be expected.

To create a lesson plan for last week, I chose a much looser, more flexible format: an outline.  Nothing was written in stone.  I simply listed the warm ups I wanted done each day and listed the worksheets we would be doing for the week.  There was another test on Thursday, followed by a game day on Friday, so it was a relaxed week overall.  The outline worked so much better than the “Five E” lesson plan format I was using, but for record-keeping purposes, I think I need something that lies between the two.  Especially since this coming week will begin to cover material that should be new for all the kids.  So, today I worked on my plans, going through the C-Scope, the teacher’s edition, and the worksheets given to my by a fellow math teacher (I pace my lessons on his, so following his handouts is a wise thing to do).  My mentors keep telling me that the district provides far more material to put into a given lesson than a single teacher will ever use.  They do that so that we can maintain some sort of flexibility and autonomy in our classrooms.  We don’t even have to use the district materials, so long as we’re sticking to the scope & sequence.  After all, we are the only ones responsible for our kids’ test scores.

Next week begins the usage of the overhead projector in my room.  I’m hoping that I can cut down on the time certain activities take by using transparencies.  For instance, the time it takes to have the students check each others work.  Right now, I have my key and I call the answers out one by one.  With an answer key on a transparency, I can have the kids trade papers, slap the transparency key down, and give them five or so minutes to grade.  I’ve just cut a 20 minute process down to five or ten.  That’s a win in my book!  I also have certain worksheets we’ll be doing together scheduled to be made into transparencies.  Right now, I have to write everything down on the board.  Then, at the end of class, it gets erased and I have to re-write everything for the new class.  (There’s not enough board in the room to leave it all up!)  With transparencies, I can write it once and display it for each class.  There’s still things I’ll be doing on the board, but not like what I’ve been doing.  Again, it should help me speed things up and cut down on the amount of time my students have to start chatting.

I’m starting to see the start of routines in my classroom, as well.  That’s good and it means that I’ve been consistent in enforcing them.  I always have the day’s warm-up sitting on the corner of a table that is located close to the door.  I don’t even have to remind my kids anymore to pick one up on the way in.  Some of them are also getting into the habit of checking their “returned papers” folders, as well.  And, when I make a mistake on a routine, I get reminded of how we’re supposed to do things!  It’s really awesome.

I’ve also started seeing some routine-following for myself, as well.  Sometimes, I have to do a task several times before I figure out the most economical way for me to accomplish it.  Taking attendance and keeping up with who was absent on which days has been a hassle.  But this past week, I started doing something that became automatic by the end of the first day.  I have my students in assigned seats, and the desks are numbered.  To take attendance, all I have to do is check for empty desks.  Then, I take a sticky note and write down the names of the kids who are absent, along with the class period.  I do this at my podium.  I then take the sticky note to my desk where I enter attendance on the computer.  When I’m done, I stick the note to the bottom of my computer screen.  Then, at the end of the period, I gather up all the papers I’ve collected that day (we put them all in the same place everytime something is turned in), put a binder clip on them, and stick the attendance sticky note to the top.  Then, when I finally get around to grading, I can hold onto the note and quickly see who I should excuse from turning in the assignment because they were absent, and who should get a zero for being present but not turning their work in.  Such a simple routine, but it took me nearly three weeks to “discover” it.

Really, since this is my first year teaching, I just don’t know how I’m going to utilize my room all the time.  I have my ideas about how I’m going to do things, but reality is often quite different.  I have to adjust how I do things according to how I actually end up moving around the room.  I’ve realized that I need to have a cup of pens and a bottle of water at my podium, for example.  Oh, and sticky notes to take attendance.  :)

In this same vein, I’m also developing filing systems for the various pieces of paper I have to deal with.  I have a file drawer established for worksheets, their key and the original, and another drawer for student records.  I also had to get something set up to deal with all the various forms I need.  I go through file folders like crazy these days!  I also have certain paperwork that I have to have ready access to, so I had to set up a few binders with divider organizers in them.  I am slowly getting myself organized!  And it’s so strange to feel myself doing so.  If you go to work in an office, everything is already there and established for you.  You just have to figure out how to use what’s already there.  For me, there was NOTHING already established in this room because no one had ever used it before.  I started with empty desks, empty file cabinets, empty shelves.  But they are filling.  And quickly!

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6 September 2009 Sunday, Sep 6 2009

I have officially been a teacher for two weeks.

HOW AWESOME IS THAT?!?

Yeah, the first week of school was so confused that I didn’t really start to get the gist of what I needed to be doing until last week.  In fact, I spent last weekend grading papers, realizing I could upload grades to the electronic gradebook then doing massive uploads, realizing that taking home this much to grade was ridiculous when the students could be (should be) doing the majority of this work, writing lesson plans and creating warm ups.  The result of all that was a much more productive week and the realization that I really sucked the first week.

I have yet to have student rosters that are the same for more than two days in a row.  That’s a complication I didn’t count on.  How do I deal with someone who enrolls into school over a week late?  What do I do with graded homework from a student that checked out of school one week into the new year?  I don’t know either!  But I do know who to ask, so I’m all good right now.

I should be writing next week’s lesson plans right now, so I’m not going to make this a long post.  Bear with me until I get my life rearranged so that I can update regularly again.  I really need a place where I can vent about my job, but finding the time to do so is a real challenge.

Anyway, I gave my first test on Friday.  I was terrified.  I felt like I was the one being tested!  After all, if my kids fail, isn’t that a reflection of how I’ve taught them?  I did have a few failing grades in each class, but only 2-3.  Over half of each class made either an A or a B, so I’m really pleased with them and with me.  It’s just a little bump of confidence that I really AM teaching.

My kids.  Oh, what knuckle-heads some of them are!  But even those are starting to grow on me.  I have three classes, back-to-back-to-back and the last two periods off.  By the time I’ve gotten to my off periods, my brain is total mush.  I’ve been told that this is to be expected and that even veteran teachers with my schedule feel the same way.  But I do love my students.  Every day, I discover something startling, interesting, funny, cool about one of them.  I can feel a good connection beginning to form with some of them.  I can see the looks some of the others give me.  They’re not sure about me yet, they are suspicious that I’m like all the other math teachers they’ve had, and they’re still withholding judgement until I show my true colors.  And then there are the ones that made that judgement before they set foot in my room.  The ones that are convinced I’m out to get them, that I’m a royal bitch, and that school is not worth another iota of their time or effort.

I have a very mixed bag of learners.  From children that should be in pre-AP (honors) classes, to autistic, to mildly dyslexic, to extremely oppositionally defiant.  I love them all.  When the bell rings for the kids to be released to classes each morning, I know I have about 3 minutes before any of my kids show up.  I stand to one side of the room and survey each desk.  Not all the desks are filled each period, but most of them are.  I pray for those kids.  I pray that I am able to reach them and that they are able to reach me.  I pray for their health, mentally, emotionally, physically, spiritually.  And I pray that they feel safe in my room, even if they feel safe nowhere else.  And still, I don’t know that I’m doing the best job I can for them.  But each week gets better.  Next week will be better than last because I am understanding more and more what I need to do to be prepared for them.  My lesson plans are becoming both more comprehensive and more flexible.  I am learning.  I am waiting to be taught.

The process is ongoing.

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25 August 2009 Tuesday, Aug 25 2009

No time.  Running.  Barely keeping up, but still afloat.  Things aren’t as bad as I expected them to be, but I still have to work pretty hard to stay ahead of the game.  Assigning seats tomorrow and actually teaching math.  Every day it’s a whole new world.

Oh, and apparently half the district, plus a lady from Texas Teachers, is going to observe me this year.  I can’t wait.

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20 August 2009 Thursday, Aug 20 2009

How’s this for a switch: I don’t feel like updating today.  But I’m gonna anyway.

You’re welcome.

Today was a monumental day.  I stopped working on the physical set-up of my room and really focused on what I’m going to do on Monday.  I started a lesson plan (didn’t finish it, but at least I got started), got a letter to the parents written (although my mentor has suggested a few changes), created and posted the bell schedule my classroom will follow (after which I was informed that my mentor could’ve given me one), and made copies of a first-day activity for all of my students.

I have tentative rosters for Monday, but nothing permanent will be released until later.  I have doubts it’s actually happen, to be honest.  I have three classes, right?  In one class I had 34 students yesterday, 28 students this morning, and 31 students this afternoon.  In another class, I’ve had 17, 18, and 16 respectively.  The third has had 28, 21, and 29 respectively.  I’m just going with the flow, though.  I figure I’ll have about 30 students in each class, 90 total, and refuse to sweat the details.

I have a pretty sweet schedule, actually.  My off periods are 7th and 8th, which makes for a short-feeling work day.  I don’t have students in the late afternoon when they’re hardest to control, nor do I have after school duty (shhhhh! Don’t tell anyone, because teachers with no 8th period are supposed to have after school duty every day!)  On the other hand, by having a 1st period class, I am an advisory teacher, and my first period is my advisory class.  To those old fogies like me out there, you would understand “advisory” as “homeroom”.  The reason we’re called one instead of the other is that we have detention duty.  If a student gets into enough trouble, another teacher can refer him/her for detention (it’s through a complicated conduct card system that I’m still trying to figure out).  The referral is sent to me, I assign the detention and make contact with the parents to let them know, and then have to follow up to make sure the kid showed up.  If they didn’t, I also have the responsibility of referring that kid to an AP for in school suspension.  In addition to discipline issues, any paperwork given out by the school, regardless of what period the students received it, is returned to the advisory teacher.  Same goes for fund raiser money.  I have mucho paperwork and documentation I have to keep up with.  Recordkeeping, baby!

I guess, by being an advisory teacher, I’ll get to know who does what in my school really, really quickly.  So, there’s a silver lining to think about.  And, considering I have the last fourth of my day generally free of students, I guess the tradeoff isn’t too bad.

This week has been a flurry of meetings.  Monday…what DID we do Monday?  I know one thing I didn’t.  I didn’t get to meet my mentor.  I was sad about that and just a little frustrated.  Now that she’s back, I’m okay, but I don’t like it when things don’t go right.  Monday, I think we went through the district employee handbook, the school employee handbook, the student code of conduct, the district student handbook, and the school student handbook.  I find it very frustrating that my district has handbooks at both the district level AND the school level.  SO inefficient!  Anyway, we also got our duty rosters, we talked a little about first day procedures, and generally dealt with paperwork all day.

Tuesday was the district’s back to school bash.  Our session was in the morning, and we got to hear Ron Clark speak and watch him climb the furniture, dance, and generally jump around like a kid with real ADD issues.  He was so funny and genuinely entertaining, and he actually had some useful things to say about teaching.  The afternoon meeting was at a different school, and the guy that spoke had absolutely nothing new or useful to say.  His speech had huge holes in it, his PowerPoint presentation looked like something I put together in junior college, and the only useful information he spouted has already been said by people who could say it better.  The district definitely wasted money on that one.

Wednesday we were back on our home campuses, and we had more paperwork to go through. This time it was about bilingual learners, special ed students, and the on-line attendance and gradebook program that the district is using this year.  In the afternoon, we were able to get into our rooms to work, which was SO nice.

Today, we had curriculum meetings all over the district, and then departmental meetings after lunch.  My department kept it short and sweet and I was able to spend a good 3 hours in my room again.  And this time, the Hubby got to come up to see it!  Yay!  I had been told that wireless printers were not going to work on the school’s network (and if I had given it a moment’s clear thought, I would have realized that on my own), so the hubby went to the store to pick up a long enough cable with a USB connection.  He unboxed everything and set the printer up as much as he could without being able to actually install it.  I’ll look into putting in a work order to have it installed by our IT department tomorrow.

Tomorrow is a work day.  We’re supposed to be able to spend the day getting our rooms ready and getting our first day or two lesson plans ready.  So far, I’ve been told about one meeting for my grade level, but hopefully it’ll be the only interruption.

Heh.  It’s 8:30 at night and UPS just delivered my latest order.  Who knew they delivered that late?  I needed a way to store bulletin board border, so I found some storage boxes just for that purpose.  I also ordered a welcome poster for the outside of my door and some cut-out stars for bulletin board accents.  I want to have some seasonal decorations, but I also don’t want to go overboard and lose focus on the fact that I need to teach, not redecorate every month.  The stars will get me started, though.  I will probably go ahead and order some major holiday season decorations, but not much else.  I also ought to get some more die-cut letters, but again, I can do it later.  With the stars, I’m pretty well set for the next month or two.  I’m going to need to find a storage solution for all this bulletin board stuff.  Hmmm..Maybe later.

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15 August 2009 Saturday, Aug 15 2009

What an incredible week.  So much information, so little time!

I started off on Monday with information overload and it still has not stopped.  Every day I wake up, and I’m innundated with yet more information to process on how the district works, how my school works, the policies, the procedures, the rules I have to follow, the paperwork I have to keep up with.  And in the midst of it all, I have to figure out how to set up a classroom for the first time, and somehow get a semblance of lesson plans done for week one even though I have no information to work from.

And those were the high points.

On Wednesday, all of us first year teachers had to stay after orientation to meet out mentors and attend the training session on the mentorship program.  Fine, good.  I was looking forward to it.  Except my mentor didn’t show up.  Turns out, she’s out of town, on vacation, and won’t be back until this coming Monday.  Then, on Thursday when we were at our home campuses, I find out from another math teacher on my team that my mentor doesn’t even teach the same prep as I do.  She teaches the pre-AP students, who learn pre-Algebra.  I teach the “regular” kids, who learn the standard 7th grade curriculum.  So, her teaching resources will be really useless to me.

I was mad at first.  Hurt, really.  Why does everyone else get a responsible mentor and I get an absentee who can’t even help me?  I had a chat with a good friend and he set me straight.  God has me where I’m supposed to be.  And even if my mentor can’t help me with teaching stuff, she can help me with classroom management techniques, and she can show me how to use the gradebook and attendance program on the computer.  The other two teachers on my team will be the resource I go to for help with lessons.  And that’s okay.  It’s okay to go to more than one person to get what I need.  Heck, the science teacher next door to me helps me, as well as her mentor, another science teacher, who is across the hall.

So far, the teachers I’ve talked to have been very supportive and helpful.  That makes me hopeful that I will get through this school year with the desire to teach still intact.

Next week is going to be super busy.  Inservice begins for the whole district, and the schedule shows us in campus and curricular meetings all week except for Friday.  Thankfully, the hours are from 8am to 3:30pm.  The Kiddo needs to be picked up from band practice at 4:30, so I can safely stay on campus for half an hour without needing to be in a meeting.  That’s time in my room that I need so that I can finish getting it set up.  On Friday, it looks like we’re working in our rooms all day, so I’ll have that time as well.

I have to say that this week has been very hard on my body.  The walking and standing are killing my knees because they’re just not used to it.  To walk from my classroom to the office and back 3-4 times is about a mile.  It’s a big school.  On the other hand, the walking will eventually do me some good and I’ll shed a few pounds, making the walking even easier.  For now, though, my left knee really hates me, and since I’ve been walking funny on that leg, the calf muscle feels like I’ve pulled it.  I don’t walk at the moment, I lurch.

This week has also been eye-opening in how much I still needed for my classroom to function.  Except for furniture, my room was completely empty.  It wasn’t used last year, so there’s nothing left behind except for dust.  I’m glad for the furniture (especially the storage!), but there’s a bit more that I need in order to teach in that room.  Office supplies are forthcoming – I’ve already put in a supply request for them.  There are things that I want and/or need that the school won’t supply, though.  They don’t provide organizers, for example.  I’ll receive a classroom set of rulers, but nothing to store them in.  They’ll give me pens and pencils, paper clips and staples, but nothing to contain them.  I can print to my department printer, but when school is in session, I can’t send a student to pick up my printing, nor can I have another teacher watch my class while I go pick it up.  I can only go on my conference period or during lunch.  What if I need a handout for my class right now?  So, I needed a printer for my room.  And I have to remember to find some time next week to put in a request for IT to come and install it.  So, yeah.  There’s a lot I needed to get.

To say I’m completely exhausted would be making light of the situation.  Thursday, after a half day in my room, I made a trip to Walmart for desk organizers, bottled water, and things to hang posters with that wouldn’t put holes in the wall.  Friday I spent all day in my room moving furniture (with Dad’s help!), hanging posters, papering over the exterior windows (didn’t help much), and covering my bulletin boards.  After I was done there, I headed to Office Depot for the printer plus extra ink, hanging files, colored paper, bulletin board letters and borders, and something to provide me with music in my room.  That stuff is sitting on the kitchen table waiting for the next time I go up to school.  Today, I bought better shoes, visited Catherine’s for more work clothes, and picked up a ton of cat litter from PetCo.  Tomorrow, it’s back to Walmart, but for groceries this time, and laundry.

I have moments of clarity when I wonder if it will be this way all the time.  All the hecticness and last minute timing.  The scope and sequence for my subject and grade were still being written last week.  The class schedules and duty rosters of the teachers are not finalized.  The a/c in my room hasn’t been working well and no one is looking into it.  We’re in meetings all week next week, but we all have lesson plans to put together.  If it is like this all the time, will I get used to it?  I don’t know.  All I know right now is that I’m tired and I can’t go to bed because the Kiddo is at a birthday party and forgot to take his key, so I have to stay up and make sure he can get into the house when he gets home.

Thank goodness I’m not a horse, or they’d have shot me already.

Oh, here’s a picture of the room in progress:
This is taken from the far, front corner of the room, looking towards the door, my desk, and the built-ins.

Here, I was standing near the filing cabinets, facing the corner where the door is.  The table on the far wall used to be where I’m standing, and the desk was facing the door.  Also, the student desks were all facing the opposite direction.

This is looking towards where I was standing in the previous picture.  I had to buy a lamp for my desk, but I forgot to get lightbulbs!  It’s nice to see stuff on the walls.  Makes the classroom much cozier.

Finally, I’m standing near the door here, facing the far wall.  You can’t even tell that I have the large window covered with yellow paper, except for the yellow reflection my phone caught on the ceiling.  I think I’m going to have to put some curtains up, but I’ll have to use a tension/spring-loaded rod, and I’m not sure they make them long enough.  Also, I’ll have to wait until they’ve gotten around to tinting the windows.  I have a uneasy feeling that once the glass is tinted, the principal will tell us we can’t cover the windows with anything else.

I plan to take my digital camera next week and take more pictures once the classroom is closer to complete.  Right now, I’m only about halfway there.

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9 August 2009 Sunday, Aug 9 2009

Tomorrow’s the day.  I went to bed last night (late) thinking about all the things I wanted to get done today.  Turns out, it wasn’t as much as I thought it was.  I had to get laundry done.  It’s done except for putting some of it away.  I had to mend/replace a hook on two bras.  Twenty minutes and done.  I’d been putting it off for three months, so they ended up needing a wash because they’d started to collect dust while sitting on my dresser.  I had to iron the clothes I planned on wearing tomorrow.  That was a pain, but it’s done.  I even managed to squeeze in a trip to WalMart.  And, since Mom didn’t cook yesterday as I thought she would, she’s cooking today, so I get the day off of KP as well.

After I got my hair cut on Friday, I’ve been working with it to figure out how to style it.  I still basically have the same hair cut, but it’s several inches shorter than I usually get it, making the styling of it completely different.  Go figure.  I thought, by cutting it shorter, I would have to style it less.  While I don’t have to go to extremes to style my hair, I do have to do something with it in the area of blow drying and using a round brush.  And, I’ve discovered that since I sleep on my left side, my hair on that side has a tendency to want to curl up and forward (not attractive), so styling products are required.  I discovered this yesterday when I blow dried my hair with a round brush, achieving a look that I was quite satisfied with, only to look in the mirror two hours later to see the left side beginning to curl up and forward again.  A bit of styling foam and a spritz of hairspray to set things today did the trick.

Please only look at the hair. Ignore the fact that I am wearing no makeup, my hair was done nearly 12 hours ago, and I am wearing the world’s ugliest shirt.  Focus, people.  And, now that I’m looking, you can’t see much of the hair.  It’ll just have to do, though.

I’m planning on getting up at 5:30 tomorrow morning.  I timed my drive yesterday, and with no traffic, it takes about 30 minutes.  I’ll add another 10 for traffic, but I’m not worried.  I think I’ll be leaving between 6:15 and 6:30, just to be safe…which actually means I need to be up at 5, not 5:30.  Damn.  Well, anyway, if I am with it enough to remember, and I have time, I will try to take a pic of me all gussied up.  Should be interesting.  Or horrifying.  Whichever.

Mmmmm.  I can smell dinner.  Mom is cooking a turkey ham with sliced yams, and made some sort of sauce for it all with applesauce, raising, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and brown sugar.  The smell is just heavenly!

Okay, I have two hours before I (technically) need to be in bed.  I’d better go put the rest of that laundry away.

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