I don't know which my administration likes more acronyms or meetings.
When I left school Thursday afternoon I looked at the teacher notice board across for our mail boxes in the main office and thought, finally a morning off, I can get around to grading the ever growing stack of papers taking over my desk. I can't grade the papers during class time, although it is tempting to give my students busy work and dive into the forest springing up on my desk, but then I would be making more papers because I would have to grade the busy work. I am to old school, I don't want to give the students each others papers to grade, besides at an inner city school that is never really a good idea anyway. So Thursday night I left school and thought I'll get to school early Friday morning and grade until classes start.
Friday morning I arrived 30 minutes earlier than normal and I immediately noticed the new message posted on the dreaded teacher message board "Friday: Freshman Teachers meeting (All Staff Meeting)". I have to admit, I get a kick out of the assistant principal's use of misdirection. We are only going to address the freshman teachers, but everyone needs to attend anyway - we don't want those upperclassmen teachers having some extra time in the morning to do something silly like GRADE PAPERS!!!
These type of postings always confuse a very sweet, yet rather eccentric teacher in my department who only reads the first part of the post, and then spends the rest of the day close to tears and shaking because she thinks she will get written up, or fired. She doesn't have tenure. She may get fired. On the other hand, I have tenure and i go to the meeting so I have something to talk about for the rest of the day.
In this meeting all the teachers were handed a variety of lists, one with our names, next to our name was our freshman failure rate. Another longer (23 pages to be exact) document had the names of the freshman, what classes they were failing and the teachers name. Then there were action plans and what not we needed to fill out and turn in. All of this is so we can get our freshmen on track. Let me stat for the record, I agree with most of this. Targeting students so they don't fall through the cracks is a good thing.
What I don't agree with was the assistant principal pointing out people on the list with the highest failure rates so rest of the staff could make suggestions to failing teachers.
By the way since I have the highest F.F.R.(freshman failure rate) in the building 100%, I was first. I teach mostly upperclassmen, I have one class that has all four year groups mixed in, it is an elective. I have one freshman in that class. He is currently making a third attempt to become a sophomore. He sleeps in my class, at least he comes now - getting him to show up was a LOT of work.
So, Friday morning I had to sit through what felt like an intervention. Colleagues of mine were telling me things I could do to mentor and help my little freshmen get their grades up. i thought I had done a pretty bang up job it took 5 weeks to convince the kid to come to school every day. I figured it would take at least that long to get him to stay awake.
I have to admit I was crabby for the rest of the day. So as i walked around the room talking about my subject I made sure to kick/trip on the desk of my only freshman, apologizing to him every I woke him up. "Is your desk out further than everyone?", "maybe the leg is bent?", "I am sorry, I am all left feet today."
Saturday, November 14, 2009
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
I love days like today.
We have tomorrow off for Veteran's Day, all my students happily worked on their assignments and now that i have recovered for the post traumatic stress of grading I could walk around my classroom (circling my students like a shark ready to strike it's prey) looking over shoulders to see what everyone is doing, ease dropping on conversations and most importantly doing what I love, helping the students who need it, even the ones who didn't realize they needed help until I came around. I bet those students hate it when I tell them what to do to get a better grade, but I know they like the better grade they receive in the end.
I spoke to some students who looked up their grades and realized they were not doing so well, and we talked about what they could do to get their grades up for the semester.
I helped one of my most macho boy students as he and the students at his table were talking about movies they liked, and to my utter shock, this student suggest that all of his friends watch Brokeback Mountain. When he said it my mouth hit the table with a thud. I could not see this student in my wildest dreams watching or liking a movie like Brokeback Mountain. He admitted he fast forwarded through the "gay" scenes and only watched it in the first place because the joker was in it, but he equated the homophobia with racism and it truly touched him.
I also answered important life questions I actually could answer today like when one of my favorite students asked me if Sesame Street was 75 today. I replied "It's 40. I am the same age as sesame Street!" My student reminded me that I am older than her mom, a fact which I already knew, and we laughed.
I got a facebook tell from another students who is happy and successful and makes me proud to know him, especially since he was handful when he sat in a desk in the front row of my classroom his freshman year.
Today was all about my students and teaching, my morning meetings was canceled, my grades were finished Friday. I really wish i could have more days like today
We have tomorrow off for Veteran's Day, all my students happily worked on their assignments and now that i have recovered for the post traumatic stress of grading I could walk around my classroom (circling my students like a shark ready to strike it's prey) looking over shoulders to see what everyone is doing, ease dropping on conversations and most importantly doing what I love, helping the students who need it, even the ones who didn't realize they needed help until I came around. I bet those students hate it when I tell them what to do to get a better grade, but I know they like the better grade they receive in the end.
I spoke to some students who looked up their grades and realized they were not doing so well, and we talked about what they could do to get their grades up for the semester.
I helped one of my most macho boy students as he and the students at his table were talking about movies they liked, and to my utter shock, this student suggest that all of his friends watch Brokeback Mountain. When he said it my mouth hit the table with a thud. I could not see this student in my wildest dreams watching or liking a movie like Brokeback Mountain. He admitted he fast forwarded through the "gay" scenes and only watched it in the first place because the joker was in it, but he equated the homophobia with racism and it truly touched him.
I also answered important life questions I actually could answer today like when one of my favorite students asked me if Sesame Street was 75 today. I replied "It's 40. I am the same age as sesame Street!" My student reminded me that I am older than her mom, a fact which I already knew, and we laughed.
I got a facebook tell from another students who is happy and successful and makes me proud to know him, especially since he was handful when he sat in a desk in the front row of my classroom his freshman year.
Today was all about my students and teaching, my morning meetings was canceled, my grades were finished Friday. I really wish i could have more days like today
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
What week is this?
This week is the 8th week of school, so it would only be logical to be giving students their 10 week assessments this week.
For all of you out there that do speak education gibberish the 10 week assessment is the quarterly test/exam. No one calls a test a test anymore, we use the term assessment to confuse everyone, because assessments are also quizzes and as the case with some teachers at my school projects. In fact, we throw the word assessment all over the place. I don't have the slightest idea how students distinguish a pop quiz from a semester final because we call them all assessments and tell them every assessment is equally important.
Just in case you are questioning the time liner regarding our assessments... The school year is 40 weeks long made up of 2 twenty week semesters and each semester is comprised of two ten week quarters. Hence the 10 week assessments (quarter exams) at the ten week mark.
The first sentence was not a type-o. This is week 8.
I don't question the logic of my school anymore. I accept the reality of an administration that mandates teachers give 10 week assessments during the 8th week of school. If I start to fixate on that than I don't have time to break down how each individual student scored on every quest of the exam, put down the the results in a power point that I am sure the results of which will be analyzed by my bosses and there bosses for the next two weeks... at least.
Despite my best efforts; reviewing the type of questions on the test, so the students would understand and recognize higher order thinks skills questions; reviewing the subject matter we covered over the last eight weeks and pinpointing what is extra important to study; spending not one but multiple class periods doing oral prep; and letting them know how important this is. The average score of my very easy exam was a 67%.
The average student score on the ACT is 17.
The world needs waitresses, garbage men, secretaries and mechanics. My students could be any of those things. No one is leaving my high school with hopes of joining a think tank, if they know what that is. My issue is that we spend A LOT of time as teachers spinning out wheels telling our students how important college is and that they must go. We spend even more time "preparing" them for college, whatever that means. We spend countless hours writing, grading and analyzing endless assessments when we could be using that time mentoring, teaching - I mean really teaching - and giving students the guidence they need that is so lacking in their lives.
Even my worst students, the ones whose purpose in life seems to make my day miserable for the time they are in my class want to pass my class. They try to pass. They take their assessments. I see them reading the questions, and it breaks my heart that I never see the light bulb go off over their heads when they realize they know the answer to a question. Every time they get a failing grade on a test, they get a little more frustrated. I have to many students and they have to many responsibilities. I can't help every one, and sometimes the ones who need the help never ask or take it when offered.
So why this push for college? Why do we tell them they must go? I know a lot of happy, successful adults that never went to college. they have good jobs and some of them make more money than I do.
My school is judged on how many of our seniors go to college (among other things). So we push and we assess... and asses... and assess
For all of you out there that do speak education gibberish the 10 week assessment is the quarterly test/exam. No one calls a test a test anymore, we use the term assessment to confuse everyone, because assessments are also quizzes and as the case with some teachers at my school projects. In fact, we throw the word assessment all over the place. I don't have the slightest idea how students distinguish a pop quiz from a semester final because we call them all assessments and tell them every assessment is equally important.
Just in case you are questioning the time liner regarding our assessments... The school year is 40 weeks long made up of 2 twenty week semesters and each semester is comprised of two ten week quarters. Hence the 10 week assessments (quarter exams) at the ten week mark.
The first sentence was not a type-o. This is week 8.
I don't question the logic of my school anymore. I accept the reality of an administration that mandates teachers give 10 week assessments during the 8th week of school. If I start to fixate on that than I don't have time to break down how each individual student scored on every quest of the exam, put down the the results in a power point that I am sure the results of which will be analyzed by my bosses and there bosses for the next two weeks... at least.
Despite my best efforts; reviewing the type of questions on the test, so the students would understand and recognize higher order thinks skills questions; reviewing the subject matter we covered over the last eight weeks and pinpointing what is extra important to study; spending not one but multiple class periods doing oral prep; and letting them know how important this is. The average score of my very easy exam was a 67%.
The average student score on the ACT is 17.
The world needs waitresses, garbage men, secretaries and mechanics. My students could be any of those things. No one is leaving my high school with hopes of joining a think tank, if they know what that is. My issue is that we spend A LOT of time as teachers spinning out wheels telling our students how important college is and that they must go. We spend even more time "preparing" them for college, whatever that means. We spend countless hours writing, grading and analyzing endless assessments when we could be using that time mentoring, teaching - I mean really teaching - and giving students the guidence they need that is so lacking in their lives.
Even my worst students, the ones whose purpose in life seems to make my day miserable for the time they are in my class want to pass my class. They try to pass. They take their assessments. I see them reading the questions, and it breaks my heart that I never see the light bulb go off over their heads when they realize they know the answer to a question. Every time they get a failing grade on a test, they get a little more frustrated. I have to many students and they have to many responsibilities. I can't help every one, and sometimes the ones who need the help never ask or take it when offered.
So why this push for college? Why do we tell them they must go? I know a lot of happy, successful adults that never went to college. they have good jobs and some of them make more money than I do.
My school is judged on how many of our seniors go to college (among other things). So we push and we assess... and asses... and assess
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
You live, you learn. At any rate you live
I am an urban inner city high school teacher.
People hear what I do for a living and they assume that my students are the stereo types portrayed in the various movies about teaching and they must be terrible. I love my students like my children. I love the good students who are just plain nice kids, the snarky teenagers who thinks sarcasm is wit (they will learn), the kids with probation officers and the ones with children of their own. Sure teenagers are frustrating, and occasionally annoying, but I remember what I was like as a teenager... and I was annoying. High school is the worst time in most people lives. Every hormone in your body is telling you to drive the adult in your life crazy, and every small bump becomes this huge drama.
This is why I hate all those movies, they get the struggle of being a teacher WRONG!!!!!
It is not the kids who are the problem, it is the adults.
I have been teaching long enough to see a few rounds of school reforms and more than a few changes in Administration. Every In many ways my school is the canary in the coal mine. We wholeheartedly dive into each reform and we are the worse for it.
School reform turns teachers into educationologists.
An educationologist is an odd and wasteful entity; a tragic parody on the idea of an educationist. The difference between an educationologist and teacher is not in function, but the actions to complete their given function. Such types often focus on the form of teaching, with requirements, paperwork and administration rather than doing everything in their power to find and perfect the art of passing on their knowledge to their charges. While they think they are furthering their students' education, they don't often manage it.
People hear what I do for a living and they assume that my students are the stereo types portrayed in the various movies about teaching and they must be terrible. I love my students like my children. I love the good students who are just plain nice kids, the snarky teenagers who thinks sarcasm is wit (they will learn), the kids with probation officers and the ones with children of their own. Sure teenagers are frustrating, and occasionally annoying, but I remember what I was like as a teenager... and I was annoying. High school is the worst time in most people lives. Every hormone in your body is telling you to drive the adult in your life crazy, and every small bump becomes this huge drama.
This is why I hate all those movies, they get the struggle of being a teacher WRONG!!!!!
It is not the kids who are the problem, it is the adults.
I have been teaching long enough to see a few rounds of school reforms and more than a few changes in Administration. Every In many ways my school is the canary in the coal mine. We wholeheartedly dive into each reform and we are the worse for it.
School reform turns teachers into educationologists.
An educationologist is an odd and wasteful entity; a tragic parody on the idea of an educationist. The difference between an educationologist and teacher is not in function, but the actions to complete their given function. Such types often focus on the form of teaching, with requirements, paperwork and administration rather than doing everything in their power to find and perfect the art of passing on their knowledge to their charges. While they think they are furthering their students' education, they don't often manage it.
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