Whoops...

With the craziness at the end of the year, I guess I forgot to post. Here are some tidbits.

First, student quotes/maneuvers that stay with me:
S: Ms. Brown, can you please not call my mom about my grade?
Me: Well, that's kind of my job.
S: I know, but can you give *me* the assignments I'm missing instead? She's bat-shit insane.
Me: *speechless*
S: She almost threw my computer away.
Me (regaining composure, though not entirely): I'm sorry to hear that. But I did give you the assignments. Get them in as soon as you can.

And my favorite of the year, which I will probably (hopefully) remember for years: My entire fifth period class helped one student put on a very elaborate ruse to ask me to go the prom with him. It was hilarious, however, I'm still not sure if he was joking...

As well as prom being in the air, so are standardized tests, screwing up the schedule even more so that it already is at the end of the year. I see my fifth period three more times before the final. Which basically means they will be screwed.

Speaking of standardized tests, here's awesomeness* out of Florida.

*sarcasm

Wow, I can't believe the year is almost over...

And the testing continues...

I've been up to my eyeballs in logistics with the testing, and I'm not even the one in charge. It's ridiculous. One more week...

On my lunch break, I have fulfilled my Valerie Strauss obsession. In this article, she explains exquisitely about why Matthews' "Challenge Index" is problematic. This is what inspired my dislike of Matthews (even more so than his poor writing), so clearly I strongly agree with her.

This one discusses why innovation is not always a good thing. Also well-written.

Only One This Week

...apparently not much has happened. Or maybe too much.

Yes, it's the latter. It's, as they say, crunch time now, for the school play I'm helping with opens a week from today. Holy cow.

The students seem completely clueless when it comes to the schedule. It is true that theater is its own beast, with its own weird scheduling known only to those who understand how theater works, but these kids just don't get basic dates.

Auditions were way back in November, and we gave them schedules then, and told their parents to sign a form that says they agree with the schedule. But we find out TWO DAYS AGO that some cast members have an orchestra competition (a required grade for that class) next Friday, which was supposed to be opening night. Seriously, kids? And more so, parents of kids? How did you not look at your calendar to avoid this massive schedule-fuck?

Also, can't end the week without referring to education news. This article talks about teacher unions v. improving schools. Why are they mutually exclusive? Someone's gotta figure this mess out.

Who's in charge here?

So the woman in charge of the sub assignments (including mine) sent me an email WEEKS ago about the fact that I'm covering an English teacher first period today due to a meeting she has to attend. But apparently another teacher is running late so she asks me to sit with her TA class until she arrives (this teacher doesn't have a first period so it's not a conflict). I'm getting my stuff together right before TA when the other school based sub sticks his head in the door. I'm confused. So is he, because he was told to go where I already was. Ummmmm... k. But he leaves when he sees I'm there.

But then I'm called away from that classroom and back to the office. So the other SBS shows up again. When I get to the office, the woman in charge (supposedly) tells me to cover a math teacher for first period. I tell her about the email she sent, and she's confused, which makes me confused, because I think I have the date wrong. So I go to the math teacher's room, and she says, "What are you doing here? You're supposed to cover Ms. L's class!" Ummmmm... k. I go back to where I was originally supposed to be to teach Englishy things. Yeesh.

Then. I go back to the office after first period and she tells me to cover for an aid starting fifth period. But I have nothing to do until then, so I get on a library computer. She comes looking for me in the library at the end of third period and tells me I'm supposed to be covering for said aid. I tell her, "You told me not until fifth period." She looks confused, but then realizes I'm right. So then she asks me to cover for the drama teacher fourth period. So I go down there.

As the students are wandering into the class, she calls and tells me a different sub is going to take my place so I can sub for the aid like I was supposed to do. Ummmmmm... k. I do, and the last three periods of the day go off without a hitch. But still.

Holy crap, woman. Get your head on straight.

However, a bright point in the day came during the ESL History class (which I have helped with before so really know the kids). The teacher had them play a game of tug-o-war with slightly different rules to mimic the conditions of the Continental Army v. the British Army during the American Revolution. The kids loved it, and really understood the parallels. It was awesome.

Let it snow...

Except don't really. Snow days can be nice, but they really screw everything up. Especially when they come out of nowhere. It started snowing like crazy Wednesday night and they didn't announce school was closed Thursday until after 9pm. Which was kind of ridiculous if you looked outside. Friday was a snow day too, even though things weren't that bad. But that was probably for the best, because who wants to go to school on a Friday after a snow day?

Today, of course, teachers were doing things they planned to do last week. Today the ESL kids were being tested in reading and math. They were benchmark tests, which means they weren't being graded, just used as assessment tools. I realize that it is important to test these kids to see how their language is progressing, but when is enough testing too much? Especially since these kids also get the same tests as students who do have English as their native language (i.e. SOLs). Culturally, these kids may be less used to tests, also, and therefore not have the test-taking skills most adolescents possess. Also, it depends on how well these tests are written. That, I cannot attest to.

Speaking of testing, Valerie Strauss again uncovered another great article about the art and science of teaching. Often there are more questions than answers. Just like in life.

Timing is not everything.

This article today brought up an interesting question regarding how the school days are being used. I'm not sure on which side of the debate I stand. On the one hand, longer school days, and/or more of them, would help give students more time to grasp the material, and more time for teachers to elicit more information. On the other hand, how much of this time would be used efficiently? Would this extra time simply give bad teachers more time to waste? Obviously, extending the school day cannot be seen as a solution in and of itself, but I do see the importance of the debate, and why it is not easily solved.

Dolldrums...

Today was ridiculously boring. Not only did I not fill in for anyone, but I had hardly any tasks I could do. I was filing in the main office for about an hour, and after that... nothing. Neither the librarian nor the head of counseling had anything I could do, and I didn't know where else to look. So I fooled around on the computer and then went into the cafeteria to be a lunchroom monitor, whether they needed me there or not. I needed to feel useful. Then I ate my own lunch, and monitored again for third lunch. Then, once again, I had nothing to do. Your tax dollars at work, citizens!

Speaking of boredom, I noticed several times before winter break how prominent instant gratification is in our culture. It really hinders kids' motivations/patience/work ethic/what have you. Technology is certainly partly to blame, but that culture also comes from the fact that we pretty much encourage instant gratification in many ways. One of my goals, certainly, is to gain more patience, and impart this invaluable trait onto my students, as well.

Counseling

I understand that managing 750 children's schedules is quite an ordeal. I realize that even the experts don't know where every staff member is during every moment of the day. However, the counseling department has issues, mostly those that deal with inefficiency, that are even more basic than these occasionally overwhelming responsibilities.

I help the counseling department for one period a day. They have others help them too, which in itself can be obnoxious since I may begin a task and not have time to finish it, then come back the next day only to find that someone else has a different organizational system and I have to start all over. However, I think the underlying issue lies in the fact that pretty much everything the counseling office deals with is not done expediently. For instance, the registrar or head of counseling will usually give me a task and brief directions, then leaves me to it and goes about their own business in another part of the school. Occasionally she returns before I am finished and comments upon how fast I am. But it's not as if she is giving me something terribly tedious to do. Today, for example, I was given hand-written files and asked to type out labels and affix them to the appropriate files. It was a 15 minute job. I had finished typing two labels in less than two minutes on the registrar's computer and she came back to her office because she had forgotten something, and commented upon how fast I was. Really? It's not that difficult. I was even playing around with fonts and sizes because I had 15 minutes left in the period after I finished, and of course I was not given another task to do. I really wonder sometimes what people do with their time.

Last week, I had a much longer task of separating the special ed files from the rest and still managing to keep them alphabetized by grade level. It took me several days to complete this task and I was not alone. That is understandable; that was quite a large task. However, I was told that last year the special ed files were kept separately and then they were asked (wasn't sure by whom, but obviously someone with some authority in the matter) to be included with the rest, but then that person changed his/her mind again. What a freakin' waste of time. Just keep the files where they are; stop changing things around. People have better things to do. The counseling department particularly has an incredibly important role to play in the school and they don't need to be burdened with unnecessary office work. They could be using that time more effectively to, oh, I don't know, how about *gasp!* helping students?

Deja Vu

I've said it before and I'll say it again: librarians are amazing. Today was the first day of the school book fair, and the library is set up like a book store. It looks pretty authentic too. It obviously took a lot of work to do. Especially considering the fact that most kids aren't avid readers and books have to be set up in an alluring manner to entice them to read. And they were. I was impressed. There was also a section there for adults, with several cookbooks that I was drooling over. But I haven't cooked a lot recently, and the last thing I need is another excuse to make desserts.

Also, I went back to the counseling head to get my alternative assignment and the teacher with whom she said to be had a dark classroom when I showed up. I was, again, confused, and hung out in the library instead of being productive. But you know what, I don't even care, I do what I want.... Seriously, though, without sounding like a spoiled brat, I have eight of nine periods a day (including after school) in which I have an assignment. I don't think it's too much to ask for a forty-five minute break.

And more and more, I am preferring Mr. S's methods over Ms. L's. Yesterday he did an activity of which I did not see the point, but it was fun. My questions of relevancy, though, were answered with today's activity. Though Ms. L's students read the same story and had an interesting lead-in, I thought Mr. S's was better (and more bravely) run. However, both could stand to be more transparent with their students. I think this is one of the most difficult things to do in the teaching world, but also one of the most important. Speaking of transparency, I really liked the fact that Mr. S. handed out a state-written rubric for essays and explained how his grading system was similar because that's how they will be graded for the SOLs. Hooraaaay for explanations.

Slacking Off

Changes in scheduling make me a slacker. There was no school yesterday because it was teacher workday (to coincide with voting day). Teachers had to get their grades in since it was the end of the first quarter. Yesterday was a great day for me for a variety of reasons, but I hate breaks in the middle of the week. It makes them seem so much longer.

Anyway, today in the reading class I help with, I was testing fluency of some of the students. It was an interesting experience. I listened to how slowly and effectively kids read while marking down mistakes. They seemed completely used to it and not at all nervous. Evidently they are tested often. The passage seemed really long and may have been to high a level for them, but I am certainly no expert. I just wonder how accurate these reading tests really are.

Also today, the head of the counseling department changed my schedule a little. Instead of helping with the eighth grade reading class, I'm now helping with a seventh grade social studies class. My knowledge of late US history is pretty good, and I'm interested to see how it will fare in this class. She also took me out of helping in the counseling office and switched me to another class for that period, but when I went to that classroom today it was a different class than what she said it would be. The teacher in that classroom and myself were very confused. So I came to the library and typed this up instead of looking for another assignment. Woooooooo slacking!

But I will find something else to do in that time tomorrow, and tell the counseling head there was some sort of mix-up today.

Scheduling is Hard, Dude

In addition to filling in for people during the day, I have the added responsibility of running homework club twice a week and then taking those students to intramurals. Yesterday was quite the clusterf*** when it came to these tasks.

About twenty kids showed up for homework club, which was ridiculous enough in itself, and half of them weren't doing homework and/or distracting others from doing their homework. I had to deal with it completely by myself. Hooray real world experience! So that was a little crazy, but not too bad.

But then (and the taking the kids to intramurals is a very recent thing. So recent I started doing it yesterday), another teacher who was also supposed to help with intramurals on Monday helped me lead them to the field, where there were already students along with another teacher. Apparently this teacher does soccer every Monday and has been doing so for years. Whaaaaa? Why did the activities director assign three teachers to one activity that one teacher has been able to handle for years? Wasn't a huge deal, as I was still getting paid for my time (as, I presume, so were the other two), but that is a misuse of resources, I feel. Mr. M., who was evidently in charge of intramural soccer, said having all three of us there was overkill. Way to make me feel useful...

Today was a little better. There were half as many students in homework club and all of them were doing work. There was also (ironically) another teacher in the room. That was probably why they were all doing work (I think that the students don't really think of me as a real authority figure yet). There were two activities for intramurals. The other teacher lead flag football while I led soccer (of which I actually know something about) so I actually felt useful this afternoon. Hooray!